The United States President, Mr Donald Trump, recently designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern (CPC), which did not go down well with the Nigerian government.
Mr Trump’s action followed claims of a Christian genocide in the country and on Thursday night (Nigerian Time), the US Congress held a public hearing on the matter.
This development may have further frightened investors, who maintained their selling pressure stance yesterday, keeping the bourse in danger zone for another trading session.
Efforts by the banking sector to lift the market after it gained 0.28 per cent during the session failed because the majority of the other key sectors were in red.
The insurance industry slipped by 2.24 per cent, the consumer goods space slumped by 0.16 per cent, the energy index crashed by 0.08 per cent, and the industrial goods counter went down by 0.01 per cent, while the commodity segment closed flat.
At the close of transactions, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 464.41 points to 143,722.62 points from 144,187.03 points and the market capitalisation shrank by N295 billion to N91.415 trillion from N91.710 trillion.
RT Briscoe lost 10.00 per cent to trade at N3.15, Legend Internet depreciated by 9.93 per cent to N5.26, International Energy Insurance slipped by 9.79 per cent to N2.12, NAHCO crumbled by 9.78 per cent to N99.15, and Linkage Assurance declined by 9.68 per cent to N1.68.
Conversely, NCR Nigeria gained 9.89 per cent to settle at N41.10, Ikeja Hotel improved by 9.74 per cent to N20.85, Neimeth grew by 9.09 per cent to N5.40, May and Baker soared by 8.60 per cent to N17.05, and Regency Alliance surged by 6.60 per cent to N1.13.
The most active stock for the day was Access Holdings with 128.7 million units sold for N2.7 billion, Zenith Bank traded 91.5 million units worth N5.5 billion, UAC Nigeria exchanged 74.4 million units valued at N5.2 billion, GTCO transacted 48.4 million units for N4.1 billion, and Fidelity Bank exchanged 37.7 million units worth N718.6 million.
When the closing gong was struck, market participants traded 656.9 million equities valued at N25.6 billion in 18,842 deals compared with the 349.3 million equities worth N9.3 billion transacted in 18,753 deals on Thursday, indicating a rise in the trading volume, value, and number of deals by 88.06 per cent, 175.27 per cent, and 0.48 per cent apiece.