The Nigerian Exchange Limited experienced a decline in market capitalization by N35 billion on Wednesday. This dip was attributed to the decrease in share values of prominent companies, including MTN Nigeria (-0.63%), Dangote Sugar (-1.64%), Lafarge Africa Plc (-1.34%), United Bank for Africa (-0.24%), and FBN Holdings (-4%) at the close of the trading day.
Both the All-Share Index and the Market Capitalization depreciated by 0.09%, settling at 71,003.98 points and N39.047 trillion, respectively. This represents a slight drop from the previous day’s figures of 71,066.64 points and N39.082 trillion. Despite the decline in market capitalization, the market breadth, a measure of investors’ sentiments, remained positive with 36 gainers and 15 losers.
The top gainers included RT Briscoe, Daar Communications, and Unity Bank, each recording a 10% gain and closing at N0.33, N0.66, and N1.54, respectively. MeCure Industries gained 9.96% to close at N7.62, Multiverse gained 9.82% to close at N4.81, and Secure Electronic Technology Plc recorded a 9.52% gain, closing at N0.46 per unit.
Conversely, the decliners’ chart featured C&I Leasing, losing 7.58% to close at N5.26, Prestige Assurance shedding 7.55% of its share value to close at N0.49, International Breweries Plc losing 5.56% to close at N4.25 per unit, UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust losing 4.60% to close at N4.15, and FBN Holdings closing at 19.20 per unit after shedding 4% of its market value.
The sectoral performance was diverse, with the Banking and Insurance sectors posting marginal gains of 0.19% and 0.75%, respectively. However, the Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods sectors saw losses of 0.19% and 0.08%, while the Oil/Gas index remained unchanged.
The overall market activity showed improvement as the total deals appreciated by 1.95% to 6,677 trades, and the total traded value for the day surged by 128.85% to N7.37 billion. Despite this, the total volume experienced a decline of 12.81% to 428.44 million units.
Veritaskap led the session’s top trading volume with 62.08 million units valued at N22.87 million, involving 125 trades. MTN Nigeria emerged as the most traded stock in terms of value, amounting to N2.81 billion.
Other stocks that significantly contributed to both volume and value on the stock exchange included Unity Bank, GTCO, and UBA, with 38.66 million units worth N59.41 million, 33.87 million units valued at N1.28 billion, and 19.72 million units worth N407.35 million traded, respectively.
