Economy

Equities Market reacts to Nationwide protests, down 0.42%

Published

1 year ago

Equities Market Reacts To Nationwide Protests, Down 0.42%

As hardship protests began all over the country on Thursday, the Nigerian equities opened the new month on a decline with N236 billion loss, indicating subdued investors participation and a lack of significant market movement as investors continued to offload their holdings.

The All-Share Index lost 414.46 points, representing a loss of 0.42 percent to close at 97,359.76 points. Also, market capitalisation declined by N236 billion to close at N55.278 trillion.

The downturn was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks among which are MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN), Dangote Sugar Refinery, Oando, Guinness Nigeria and MeCure Industries.

However, market breadth closed positive, as 22 stocks gained relative to 19 losers. United Capital emerged the highest price gainer of 9.95 percent to close at N11.05, per share. Africa Prudential and CUTIX followed with a gain of 9.94 percent each to close at N9.40 and N5.64, respectively, while Tantalizer advanced by 9.52 percent to close at 46 kobo per share.

UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust rose by 8.99 percent to close at N4.85, while Cadbury Nigeria appreciated by 8.65 percent to close at N20.10 per share.

On the other side, MeCure Industries led others on the losers’ chart with 9.94 percent to close at N8.15, per share. Thomas Wyatt Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.74 percent to close at N1.76, while Wapic Insurance shed 8.24 percent to close at 78 kobo per share.

Oando lost 8.00 percent to close at N23.00, while Dangote Sugar Refinery shed 7.67 percent to close at N34.30 per share.

The total volume of trades decreased by 69.26 percent to 565.116 million units, valued at N8.531 billion, and exchanged in 6,821 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank led the activity with 372.914 million shares worth N3.945 billion. United Bank for Africa (UBA) followed with an account of 23.030 million shares valued at N458.087 million, while Zenith Bank traded 19.242 million shares valued at N651.440 million.

Oando traded 19.035 million shares worth N445.427 million, while Access Holdings traded 15.758 million shares worth N289.552 million.