N622bn Decrease In Stock Market Capitalization

Investors recorded lost of N622bn at the close of trading on Monday due to sell-offs of some telecoms and banking stocks.

The market which opened with the All-Share Index at 54,892.53 lost 2.08 per cent to close 53, at 750.77. The market capitalisation also depreciated by 2.08 per cent to N29.281tn.

In terms of volume, a total of 100.882 million shares valued at N 4.342bn were traded on the Nigerian Exchange Limited in 3.279 deals.

Measured by market breadth, investors’ sentiment had worsened as five stocks were on the gainers’ table while 21 declined.

The five equities on the gainers’ table include, Courtville which gained 6.67 per cent to close at N0.45, NPF Microfinance gained 2.70 per cent to close at N1.90, AIICO stocks gained 1.75 per cent to close trading at N0.58, First Bank Holdings closed trading at N11.00 following a 0.92 per cent gain and Zenith Bank got on the gainers’ table with a 0.20 per cent gain and closed the market at N25.00.

On the losers’ table were NCR, whose shares lost 9.79 per cent in market value to close at N2.12, the shares of Unity Bank suffered a 9.43 per cent loss to close at N0.48, while Prestige lost 8.89 per cent to close at N0.41.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited projected that the bearish trend of the market would be sustained given the weak investor sentiment.