Nigerian equity market extends losses

The Nigerian equity market declined for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, driven by losses recorded by MTNN, Guinness and Zenith Bank.

The All-Share Index sheds 10.72 absolute points, representing a decrease of 0.29% to close at 38,601.83 points, while Market Capitalization lost N5 7.9 5billion to settle at N2 0.2billion, bringing the year to date loss to -4.14%.

The value of stocks traded was up by 113.3% to N2.9 billion, and the volume traded increased by 7.6 2% to 208.8 million units.

The most traded stocks by volume were Fidelity (38.6 million units), GTBank (3 2.8m units), and FBNH (16.9 million units), while GTBank (₦189.0m), GTBank (₦951 million), Dangote Cement (₦412.3 million) and MTNN (₦360.6 million) led by value.

Profit-taking in MTNN (-2.4%) caused that the ICT sector led the laggards with a 1.1 5% dip, which was followed by the Healthcare sector (-0.3 9%).

The Consumer Goods (-0.2 8%), Oil and Gas (-0.2 2%), Agric (-0.1 9%), Industrial Goods sectors also closed the day in red, following selloffs in Guinness (-9.91%), Champions (-9.0 9%), Oando (-2.6%) and WAPCO (-0.5%).

On the other hand, bargain hunting in Stanbic IBTC (+5.7 5%), Sterling Bank (+7.1 4%) and FCMB (+3.21%) lifted the Banking Index (+1.0 3%), just as the Services index gained 0.5 7%.

Japaul Gold (+8.7%), NAHCO (+7.4%) and Sterling Bank (+7.1%) were the top gainers, while Guinness (-9.9%), TRIPPLEG (-9.7%), and NCR (-9.7%) were the top decliners.