Equities market drops by N782.44bn on selloff in GTCO
The Nigerian equities market closed Tuesday trading session on a bearish note, dropping by N782.44 billion to N155.2 trillion from N155.99 trillion it opened for trading.
Losses in GTCO (-7.1per cent), Zenith Bank (-2.8per cent), UBA (-3.7per cent) and First Holdco (-1.6per cent) dragged the Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index lower by 0.5per cent to 241,984.80 basis points.
Consequently, the NGX ASI Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled lower at -3.4per cent and +55.5per cent, respectively.
The total volume traded declined by 38.5per cent to 457.92 million units, valued at N27.23 billion, and exchanged in 50,332 deals. Sterlingng was the most traded stock by volume at 100.90 million units, while UACN was the most traded stock by value at N9.12 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative as the Banking (-3.0per cent), Consumer Goods (-0.5per cent) and Insurance (-0.1per cent) indices closed lower. The Industrial Goods index and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.6x), as 20 stocks gained relative to 36 losers. INTENEGINS (-10per cent) and Vitafoam (-10per cent) led the laggards, while Conoil (+9.8per cent) and Prestige (+9.8per cent) posted the most significant gains of the day.
