Nigerian equity market extends downtrend to five consecutive trading days

The Nigerian equities market closed bearish for the fifth consecutive day as more blue-chip stocks depreciated in price.

At the end of the day’s trading, the market capitalization of listed equities declined by 0.71% to close at N20.28 trillion as against the N20.424 trillion recorded on Wednesday.

Consequently, the All-Share Index also depreciated by 0.71% or 38,921.78 basis points compared to 39,204.52 basis points recorded the previous day.

Investors’ losses also dipped further as a total volume of 154.56 million units of shares valued at N2.28 billion exchanged hands in 3,467 deals.

The market sentiment stayed on negative territory as trading closed with 14 gainers and 20 losers.

On the gainers’ table, Flour Mills of Nigeria gained N0.20k to close at N28.95k. It was followed by Zenith Bank Plc with a price gain of N0.20k to close at N24.00, while Custodian Insurance gained N0.15k to close at N6.70k.

On the flip side, Airtel Africa lost N35.00 to close at N715.00, followed by Cadbury Nigeria Plc with a closing price of N8.00 after losing N0.50k. United Bank for Africa Plc lost N0.25k to close at N7.60k.

Transactions in the shares of the United Bank for Africa, however, dominated the activity chart as the firm traded 15.261 million shares valued at N116.72 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Co Plc followed with 12.158 million shares valued at N328.578 million shares, while Linkage Assurance Plc had 11.786 million shares valued at N6.988 million.