Bears resurface as equity market sheds N70bn

Transactions on the floor of Nigerian Exchange NGX on Tuesday closed negative; depreciating by N70 billion bears dominated the market

The losses in the shares of MTN, Oando, Dangote Sugar, United Bank for Africa, Nigeria Breweries, GTCO Plc, Zenith, Stanbic Guinness Nigeria Plc, outweigh gains in the shares of Regal Insurance, PZ, Cutix Plc, Deap Capital TIP among others.

Market capitalisation of listed equities decreased by 0.12 per cent to N56.075 trillion from N56.145 trillion it closed on Monday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 121.89 basis points to 97584.81 points from 97706.70 points reported the previous day.

As a result the year to date return dropped to 30.51 per cent with 29 firms closing in red against 26 companies that closed in green

A review of trading activities during the day showed that Regal Insurance led gainers table with 10 per cent, to close at N0.55 per share, PZ Cusson followed with a gain of 8.78 per cent to close at N19.20 per unit, Cutix Plc added 5.60 per cent to close at N19.20 per unit, Deap Capital added 5.59 per cent to close at N1.51 per share while TIP gained 5.26 per cent to close at N2.00 per unit.

On the contrary, Guinness Nigeria Plc recorded the highest loss during the day, declining by 10 per cent to close at N61.20 per share, Afriprudential trailed with a drop of 9.86 per cent to close at N9.60 per unit, International Breweries fell by 9.07 per cent to close at N4.01 per unit, CWG down by 6.98 per cent to close at N6.00 per share, UPDC dipped by 5.95 per cent to close at N1.58 per unit.

Volume of trades also went down by 588.889 million, representing a drop of 45.02 per cent, as investors traded 719.111 million shares valued at N8.341 billion in 9435 deals against 1.308 billion shares valued at N5.981 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 10424 deals.

Trading activities for the day showed Wapic Insurance led market activities with 402.259 million shares valued at N321.830 million, Fidelity Bank traded 49.924 million shares cost N760.211 million, Access corp exchanged 25.283 million shares worth N501.340 million, United Bank for Africa exchanged 23.069 million shares cost N648.213 million, Veritas Kapital traded 13.926 million shares worth N21.887 million.