Stock market remains bearish, drops 1.21%

The nation’s stock market maintained its bearish position on Friday, as all market indicators dropped further amid sell pressure in large capitalised stocks.

Specifically, the All-Share Index declined by 633.01 points or 1.21 per cent to close at 51,778.08 compared with 52,411.09 achieved on Thursday.

Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 21.21 per cent.

Also, the market capitalisation dropped by N341 billion or 1.21 per cent to close at N27.914 trillion against N28.255 trillion on Thursday.

The stocks that pushed the equities market lower included MTN Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Holding Company(GTCo), Zenith Bank, among others.

The market closed negative with 10 stocks that gained and 24 losers.

A breakdown of the price movement chart shows that Ellahlakes recorded the highest gain to lead the gainers’ chart with 8.40 per cent to close at N4 per share.

UACN trailed with 6.48 per cent to close at N11.50, while Living Trust Mortgage Bank rose by 5.26 per cent to close at N1.20 per share.

Mutual Benefits Assurance also rose by 4.17 per cent to close at 25k while Fedelity Bank inched up by 3.37 per cent to close at N3.37 per share.

On the other hand, McNichols Consolidated Plc led the losers’ chart, dropping by 9.76 per cent to close at N 1.85 per share.

ARDOVA lost by 9.70 per cent to close at N13.50 while Livestock dipped by 9.52 per cent to close at N1.33 per share.

International Breweries dropped by 9.42 per cent to close at N6.25, while Courtville Business Solutions dipped by 9.26 per cent to close at 49k per share.

In all, a total of 241.19 million shares valued at N3.67 billion were exchanged by investors in 5,043 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 211.615 million shares worth N2.37 billion traded in 4,750 deals on Thursday.

Jaiz Bank was the toast of investors, accounting for 40.66 million shares valued at N37.21 billion.

United Bank for Africa(UBA) came second with 35.72 million shares worth N269.42 million, while Zenith Bank sold 33.2 million shares valued at N719 million.

GTCo accounted for 16.78 million shares worth N359.69 million, while Transcorp transacted 10.91 million shares valued at N14 million.