Stock market trends downward, investors lose N118bn

The Stock Market on Thursday continued its downward trend for third consecutive session, leading to a loss of N118 billion for equity investors.

Notably, market capitalisation declined by N118 billion or 0.21 per cent to close at N56.712 trillion, compared to N56.830 trillion recorded on Wednesday.

The All-Share Index which opened at 100,365.17, also sheds 0.21 per cent or 208.2 points to settle at 100,156.96.

Accordingly, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return slipped to 33.95 per cent.

Meanwhile, sell-offs in Tier-one banking stocks, as well as Dangote Sugar, Transnational Corporation, Honeywell Flour, Guinness, among other declined equities drove the market’s performance down.

Market breadth closed negative with 25 losers and 12 gainers on the floor of the Exchange.

Omatek led 24 other declined equities on the losers’ table by 10 per cent to close at 63k per share, while Custodian Investment Plc led the 11 other advanced equities by 8.51 per cent to close at N10.20 per share.

However, trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session with the value of transactions up by 12.43 per cent.

A total of 1.34 billion shares valued N9.67 billion were exchanged in 8,198 deals, in contrast to 497.84 million shares valued at N8.61 billion traded in 8,412 deals posted in the previous session.

Also, Tourist Company of Nigeria led the activity table in volume and value with 973.34 million shares valued at N2.79 billion.