National Telescope national telescope newspaper
By Chucks Peter
The Nigerian stock market reversed its previous session’s gains on Monday, resulting in a loss of N404 billion, or 0.72%, for equity investors.
The market’s decline was mainly driven by losses in major stocks, including BUA Cement and top-tier banks like Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO).
Specifically, the market capitalization of the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) closed at N55.574 trillion, down from its opening value of N55.978 trillion.
The All-Share Index also dropped by 0.72%, losing 711.2 points to close at 97,880.94, compared to 98,592.12 recorded on Friday.
This decline brought the Year-To-Date (YTD) return down to 30.90%.
Despite the overall market downturn, the market breadth remained positive, with 29 stocks gaining and 20 stocks declining.
On the gainers’ chart, Julius Berger led with a 10% increase to close at N121 per share, while BUA Cement topped the losers’ chart with a 9.93% decrease to close at N114.30 per share.
An analysis of market activities revealed that trade turnover was higher compared to the previous session, with the value of transactions increasing by 44.11%.
A total of 498.27 million shares valued at N11.77 billion were exchanged in 10,645 deals, compared to 477.44 million shares worth N8.17 billion traded in 9,529 deals during the previous session.
Meanwhile, GTCO led the activity chart in both volume and value, with 123.92 million shares worth N5.66 billion traded.
