Equity market sheds N25bn

Domestic equity market Tuesday returned to negative trend, shedding N25 billion as sell pressure in shares of MTN Nigeria, Zenith Bank, others impacted market activities.

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.09 per cent to N26.609 trillion from N26.634 trillion traded the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 45.54 basis points to 48853.54 points from 48899.08 points reported on Monday.

Investors traded 162.977 million shares valued at N3.874 billion in 3286 deals against 236.586 million shares valued at N2.517 billion in 3334 deals.

A review of the investment during the day indicated that SmurFit led gainers table during the day, gaining 10 per cent to N0.22, Cornerstone Insurance followed with a gain of 8.70 per cent to N0.50, Bua Cement gained 3.60 per cent to N95.00, FTNCocoa Plc increased by 3.23 per cent to N0.32, Zenith Bank gained 2.45 per cent to N23.00.

On the contrary, SCOA Plc topped losers chart during the day, dropping 9.30 per cent to N0.78, Chams Plc trailed with a loss of 8.70 per cent to N0.21, Jaiz Bank fell by 8.42 per cent to N0.87, Lasaco Insurance dipped by 6.67 per cent to N0.84, UPL down by 5.46 per cent to N1.73.


The result further showed that Sterling Bank was the toast of investors for the day, accounting for 31.611 million shares valued at N43.025 million , GTCO Plc followed with account of 19.208 million shares worth N40.328 million, Chams Plc traded 16.424 million shares worth N3.505 million, MTN Nigeria exchanged a total of 12.452 million shares cost N2.596 billion.