Nigeria’s equities market on Tuesday recorded its first decline this week by 0.16 percent as investors took profit ahead of Wednesday’s public holiday marking Nigeria’s democracy day. The market’s year-to-date (YtD) return lowered to 33.24 percent.
Investors lost about N93billion at the close of trading. Among others, investors sold mostly the shares of Nascon, May & Baker and C & I Leasing. Nascon decreased most from N40.85 to N36.80, losing N4.05 or 9.91percent.
It was followed by May & Baker which decreased from N6.03 to N5.60, losing 43kobo or 7.13percent; while C & I leasing followed after dropping from N3 to N2.80, losing 20kobo or 6.67percent.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation decreased from preceding day’s 99,793.71 points and N56.452trillion respectively to 99,630.51 points and N56.359 trillion.
In their post-trading commentary, analysts at Vetiva said despite the red close, “market breadth as overwhelming positive, with all sectors closing in the green, that said we expect the market to trade in a positive manner when trading resumes following the Democracy Day holiday, barring significant sell-side pressure in the likes of MTNN”.
In 8,064 deals, investors exchanged 848,965,335 shares worth N16.551billion. Fidelity Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Zenith Bank, ETI and Access Holdings were actively traded stocks.
