NGX Market Capitalisation Declined by N67 Billion in Thursday Trading Session

At the close of Thursday's trading session, Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) investors finished on a loss following sell-offs in the banking, insurance, and consumer goods sectors, pushing market capitalisation down by N67 billion.

The NGX All-Share Index closed in a 0.12% decline, closing at 101,239.10 points, while the market capitalisation finished at N55.40 trillion from how it closed the previous day at N55.464 trillion. The NGX exchange's year-to-date returns have moderated to 35.39%.

On Wednesday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange finished with a gain of N165 billion after two days of straight bearish trading.

The NGX traded volume declined by 16.43% to 252.9 million units. Total traded value also dropped by 24.54% to N4.94bn, followed by a 15.83% decline in the total deals, totalling 7,248 trades.

The NGX banking, insurance, and consumer goods sectors declined by 0.44%, 0.22%, and 0.08%, respectively.

Market breadth, the measure of investors' sentiment, was negative, as reflected in 22 stocks gaining while 28 lost.

Top Gainers: Sunu Assurances Plc, Omatek, and Juli led the gainers.

Top Losers: Daar Communications lost 10% to close at N0.72, Wema Bank followed with 9.93% to close at N7.80, and PZ Cussons, lost 9.89% to close at N24.60 per share.

In 7,248 deals, investors exchanged 252,997,201 shares worth N4.944 billion. FBN Holdings, UBA, Access Holdings, Prestige Assurance, and Zenith Bank were actively trading stocks.

FBN Holdings emerged as the most traded security by volume and value, with 31.86 million units traded worth N917.27 million in 381 trades. 

Back Story

On Wednesday, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) stock market recovered from prior days' losses as investors renewed interest in United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), BUA Cement Plc, and nine others, pushing the market capitalisation up by N165 billion.

NGX investors finished on a positive note at the close of Wednesday's trading session as market capitalisation gained N165 billion from the previous day, which led NGX market capitalisation to go down following investors' role in profit-taking in a two-day decline. At the trading day's close, market capitalisation was down by N729 billion, totalling the two-day loss to N2.55 trillion.

Market capitalisation rose by N165 billion to close at N55.464 trillion from N55.299 trillion. Its stock market opened for trading yesterday.

The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) gained 301.71 basis points, or 0.30%, to close at 101,362.38 basis points from 101,060.67 basis points it closed for trading the previous day.