Domestic equity market Monday remained on negative trend, shedding N417 billion following losses recorded by MTN Nigeria and other highly capitalised stocks.
This resulted in the Market capitalisation of listed equities declining by 1.48 per cent to close at N27.850 trillion from N28.267 trillion reported on Friday.
The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 766.56 basis points to 51127.38 points from 51893.94 points traded the previous day.
Commenting on the poor performance of the stocks in the last one week, the Chief Operating Officer Investdata Consulting, Mr Ambrose Omordion said the bearish run witnessed in the market in last one week was due to sell-offs in highly priced stocks in the midst of low liquidity and tension around high inflation, interest rates and yields.
He said the decline also coupled with the price adjustment for dividend, as first quarter corporate earnings are expected to give direction in the face of economic tailwind.
Another financial analyst also said that depreciation in the shares of MTN Nigeria help to weigh down the NGX index during yesterday trading.
He said that the market is likely to return to bullish trend once the companies start payment of dividend.
An analysis of the investment showed that
Ikeja Hotel led gainers table during the week, appreciating by 9.48 per cent to close at N1.27 per share. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria followed with a gain of 9.47 per cent to close at N1.85 per share, Chi Plc gained 8.77 per cent to close at N0.62 per unit, NGX group added 8.16 per cent to N26.50 per share, Jaiz Bank up by 5.69 per cent to close at N0.93 per unit.
