Lagos: This week, the Nigerian stock market stumbled into bearish territory. Heavy sell-offs erased ₦276 billion in market value, underscoring investor jitters and renewed pressure on equities.
Continuing the trend, sell-offs in Secure Electronic Technology, May & Baker, Legend Internet, Cutix, Fortis Global Insurance and 29 other equities further weighed on the market.
As a direct result, market capitalisation declined by 0.21 per cent to N128.693 trillion, down from N128.969 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share Index also fell by 428.63 points, or 0.21 per cent, to close at 200,484.43, compared with 200,913.06 in the previous session.
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return eased to 28.84 per cent. Market breadth also closed negative, with 34 losers against 27 gainers.
Among individual stocks, Secure Electronic Technology suffered a 10 per cent loss, closing at N1.17. May & Baker plunged 9.42 per cent to N38, while Legend Internet tumbled 8.67 per cent to N6.85 per share.
Cutix shed 8.29 per cent to N3.21. Fortis Global Insurance, on the other hand, lost 7.97 per cent, closing at N1.27 per share.
On the upside, Austinlaz led the gainers’ table with a 9.98 per cent increase to N4.41. In addition, Zichis Agro Allied Industries rose by 9.93 per cent to N15.16, while Transcorp Power gained 9.65 per cent to N2.84 per share.
The Initiates climbed 9.60 per cent to N21.70, and Learn Africa rallied 9.41 per cent, closing at N9.30 per share.
Turning to trading activity, the session showed a mixed performance: an increase in value and the number of deals, but a decline in volume. A total of 593.3 million shares valued at N25.6 billion were traded in 60,311 deals.
This level of trading compares with 595.2 million shares worth N24.5 billion exchanged in 43,440 deals in the previous session, highlighting changes in both value and volume.
To illustrate key movers, Access Corporation dominated trading by volume with 86.64 million shares, while First HoldCo commanded the value chart at N4.26 billion.
