Bearish sentiments intensified in the Nigerian equities market on Wednesday following sell pressures on MTN Nigerian Communication having dipped in share value by 10.0 percent.Sequentially, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled lower at -6.2 percent and +31.2 percent, respectively.
At the end of the day’s trading session, total investor’s wealth shed N673.16 billion as the market capitalization of listed equities declined by 1.20 percent to N55.49 trillion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive, as 21 tickers gained relative to 19 losers. On the performance board, Neimeth Pharmaceutical and Sunu Assurance recorded the highest gains of the day having appreciated in share value by 10.0 percent, respectively, while MTN Nigeria Communications and Transcorp Hotels topped the losers’ list with 10 percent dip in their share prices.
Sectoral performance exhibited a mixed trend, with the Banking and Insurance sectors posting losses of 0.83 per cent and 0.27 percent due to sell-offs in FBN Holdings, United Bank for Africa, AIICO Insurance, Wapic Insurance, Mutual Benefits Assurance, Cornerstone Insurance and Sovereign Insurance.
On the other hand, the Consumer and Industrial Goods sectors gained 0.05 percent and 0.02 per cent, driven by positive interest in Unilever Nigeria, CAP, and Cutix, while the Oil/Gas sector remained steady from the previous session.
This shift was reflected in trading activity levels on the NGX, with total deals and value experiencing gains of 7.96 percent and 22.10 percent, totaling 7,907 trades and N9.58 billion.
Conversely, traded volume for the day saw a decline of 31.10 percent to 395.75 million units.
Guaranty Trust Holding Company was the most traded stock by volume and value at 81.41 million and N2.93 billion, respectively.
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