The week kicked off on a bearish note at the Nigerian Exchange Market as losses recorded in the equities of some medium-cap companies dragged the market capitalization to an N259 billion loss on Monday.
According to NGX data, atop the losers’ chart was BUA Cement, whose shares shed 10 per cent in value to close at N93.60 per unit from N104.
Other affected stocks include Dangote Sugar (-0.43 per cent), Lafarge (-0.17 per cent), Oando Plc (-2.12 per cent), Fidson (-3.53 per cent), NGX Group (-0.68 per cent), Zenith Bank (-0.43 per cent) and United Bank for Africa (-0.23 per cent).
The market capitalization and the All-Share Index dropped by 0.66 per cent to N38.823 trillion and 70,946.83, respectively, as the year-to-date returns moved to 38.43 per cent.
Transaction volume on the local bourse dipped to 358.53 million units from 361.12 million trades valued at N7.10 billion, exchanged in 6,433 deals. The number of stocks traded in Monday’s trading session stood at 121.
Despite the loss recorded, market sentiments are positive, resulting in 33 gainers and 26 losers.
The gainers were led by the paper company Thomas Wyatt, which gained 10 per cent to close at N2.75 per unit. The shares of First Bank of Nigeria Holdings, which had been trading positively for days, gained 9.93 per cent to close at N24.35 per unit, while Daar Communications gained 9.68 per cent to close at N0.34. DEAP Cap’s shares also rose by 9.68 per cent to close at N0.68, and Neimeth gained 9.63 per cent to close at N2.05 per unit.
Meanwhile, McNichols’ shares lost 9.33 per cent to close at N0.68 per unit. It came closely behind BUA Cement, which lost 10 per cent to lead the chart. Computer Warehouse Group lost 7.50 per cent to close at N6.66 per unit, Mutual Benefit lost 7.14 per cent to close at N0.52, and real estate firm UPDC also dipped by 7.14 per cent to close at N1.17.
The volume and value drivers of the day were Universal Insurance, indigenous Transnational Corporation, the largest cap stock, Airtel Africa, banking stock, and GTCO.
The performance was predominantly in the bearish region across all sectors, as three of the five tracked sectors closed in the red zone. Similarly, the Insurance, Oil/Gas and Industrial Goods indexes recorded losses of 0.28 per cent, 0.01 per cent and 4.21 per cent, respectively. In comparison, the Banking and Consumer Goods sectors advanced by 0.01 per cent and 0.06 per cent.
