Investors Lose N622 Billion, As Market Capitalisation Declines

The decline in market capitalisation and sell-offs of some telecoms and banking stocks left investors with a loss of N622 billion at the close of trading on Monday.

Naija News reports that while a total of 100.882 million shares valued at N 4.342 billion were traded on the Nigerian Exchange Limited in 3.279 deals, the market capitalisation depreciated by 2.08% to N29.281 trillion.

It was gathered that investors’ sentiment had worsened as only five stocks were on the gainers’ table while 21 declined to the loser tables.

The market which opened with the All-Share Index at 54,892.53 lost 2.08% to close 53, at 750.77.

The five equities on the gainers’ table include, Courtville which gained 6.67% to close at N0.45, NPF Microfinance gained 2.70% to close at N1.90, AIICO stocks gained 1.75% to close trading at N0.58, First Bank Holdings closed trading at N11.00 following a 0.92% gain and Zenith Bank moved on the gainers’ table with a 0.20% gain and closed the market at N25.00.

On the losers’ table, the NCR shares lost 9.79% in market value to close at N2.12, the shares of Unity Bank also suffered a 9.43% decline to close at N0.48, while Prestige lost 8.89% to close at N0.41.

Top traded in terms of value was MTN Nigeria with 8.264 million shares worth N1.926 billion traded in 414 deals, while 690,499 shares of Seplat worth N794.055 million were exchanged in 32 deals and 256,505 shares of Airtel Africa valued at N363.814 million were traded in 21 exchanges.

However, projections from analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited indicate that the bearish trend of the market would be sustained given the weak investor sentiment.