Investors Lose N186bn as Bears Overrun Nigerian Exchange

Data showed that investors booked profit on equities that have recorded a reasonable price appreciation in the past trading days.

As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) was down by 301.86 points to 102,836.13 points from the preceding day’s 103,137.99 points and the market capitalisation went down by N186 billion to settle at N63.147 trillion versus Tuesday’s value of N63.333 trillion.

Business Post reports that apart from the banking sector, which gained 0.61 per cent yesterday, every other space turned red.

The insurance counter declined by 0.91 per cent, the consumer goods index tumbled by 0.26 per cent, the industrial goods counter crashed by 0.18 per cent, and the energy industry shrank by 0.11 per cent.

Multiverse topped the losers’ chart during the session after it lost 9.87 per cent to close at N10.05, May and Baker slipped by 9.78 per cent to N8.30, Prestige Assurance retreated by 7.69 per cent to N1.32, Guinea Insurance crumbled by 7.45 per cent to 87 Kobo, and Red Star Express moderated by 4.75 per cent to N4.81.

On the flip side, SCOA Nigeria appreciated by 9.70 per cent to N3.28, Cadbury Nigeria jumped by 9.65 per cent to N25.00, Secure Electronic Technology gained 9.59 per cent to 80 Kobo, C&I Leasing expanded by 5.85 per cent to N4.34, and FTN Cocoa grew by 5.41 per cent to N1.95.

On top of the activity log was Access Holdings with a turnover of 92.0 million shares valued at N2.2 billion, UBA exchanged 27.0 million stocks worth N919.3 million, Sterling Holdings traded 23.0 million equities for N124.1 million, AIICO Insurance transacted 17.9 million stocks worth N31.7 million, and Zenith Bank sold 17.0 million equities for N802.2 million.

In all, the market participants bought and sold 394.8 million stocks worth N15.2 billion in 10,766 deals at midweek versus the 440.3 million stocks valued at N12.0 billion transacted in 13,087 deals a day earlier.

This showed that the value of transactions increased during the session by 26.67 per cent as the volume of transactions and the number of deals decreased by 10.33 per cent and 17.74 per cent, respectively.