By Chioma Obinagwam

Nigerian equities market began the week with a downward trend as the key market indicator- the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share index recorded a decline.

According to the Daily Official list of the NSE, the NSE All-Share index, which tracks the general market movement of all listed equities on the Exchange, including the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM) regardless of their capitalisation, took a 22 basis points (bps) or 0.22 percent plunge from the 38,648.48 points it achieved at the weekend to close at 38,561.84 points on Monday.

The decline in the equities market was triggered by sell-offs in the stocks of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), Nigerian Breweries (NB) and International Breweries.

GTBank opened trading at N30.75 and closed at N29.95 shedding 80 kobo or 2.60 percent from its share price.

Moreover, the stock witnessed large sell-offs as investors traded a total of 4,156,901 million shares at N125.71 million in 216 transactions.

Trailing GTBank is NB, which shaved N2.65 or 5.34 percent from its N49.65 opening price to settle at N47.

For NB, investors a total of 345,841 thousand shares valued at N16.21 million in 41 deals.
International Breweries suffered 20 kobo loss or 3.77 percent from its N5.30 opening price to close at N5.10.

Also, investors traded 393,801 thousand shares for N1.99 million in 27 deals.

Recall that Confiance News had reported that equities would tilt downwards in the current week due to profit taking (sell-offs).

The total volume of trades declined by 37.2 percent to 184.53 million units, valued at N2.52 billion and exchanged in 3,527 deals.

Reacting, analysts at Afrinvest Research stated, “Consequently, the YTD loss worsened to -4.2% and market capitalisation declined by ₦45.3bn to ₦20.2tn. Trading activity waned as volume and value declined by 37.2% and 33.2% respectively to 184.5m units and ₦2.5bn.”

More so, FBN Holdings was the most traded stock by volume and value at 31.14 million units and N252.97 million, respectively.

FBN Holdings also closed at N7.35 on Monday; its highest share price Year-To-Date (YTD).

A total of 16 stocks posted gains while 17 stocks declined.

As earlier reported by Confiance News, equities market is expected to continue in the negative territory as selling pressure persists.

However, discerning investors are expected to take position in fundamentally viable stocks at this that share prices are low.

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