The nation’s equity market on Wednesday continued on a negative trend, declining by N622 billion on renewed profit-taking activities embarked on by investors.
The market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 1.75 percent to N34.918 trillion from N35.540 trillion reported the previous day.
Similarly, the NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 1142.26 basis points to 64167.39 points from 65309.65 points it closed on Tuesday, with the market recording a year-to-date gain of 26.20 percent at the close of trading yesterday.
An analysis of the investment showed that Omatek and Guinea Insurance led the gainers table during the day in percentage terms, gaining 10 percent each to close at N3.15 and N36.90 per share respectively.
Tantalizer followed with a gain of 9.09 percent to close at N0.36 per unit, Abbey Building Society added 8.90 percent to close at N1.59 per unit, TIP also appreciated by 8.86 percent to close at N0.86 per share.
On the contrary, Multiverse and Nascon recorded the highest loss, declining by 10 percent to close at N3.15 and N36.90 per share respectively. JohnHolt trailed with a drop of 9.77 percent to close at N1.20 per share, Dangote Cement declined 9.09 percent to close at N320.00 while Universal Insurance was down by 8.33 percent to close at N0.22 per share.
The volume of transactions during the day went down by 79.78 million, representing 25.09 percent as Investors traded 238.039 million shares valued at N2.616 billion in 6001 deals against 317.808 million shares valued at N4.471 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 6376 deals.
The trading result showed that Sterling Bank led market activities with 32.673 million shares valued at N113.802 million in 91 deals, Fidelity Bank followed with account of 21.124 million shares valued at N161.326 million in 168 deals, Universal Insurance traded 159.151 million shares cost N3.763 million in 31 deals, United Bank for Africa traded 12.278 million shares worth N176.557 million in 251 deals while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria exchanged 9.773 million shares cost N35.931 million in 194 deals.