The All-Share Index fell by 0.01 per cent on Thursday, extending Nigerian Exchange’s losing run to four consecutive trading sessions, owing to continued sell-offs in banking equities.
With the exception of oil and gas equities, the performance was boosted by the profit-taking mood among investors.
The All-Share Index, for example, fell 3.19 points, or 0.01 per cent, to settle at 39,201.33, down from 39,204.52 the day before.
As a result, month-to-date and year-to-date losses were respectively 0.1 per cent and 2.7 per cent.
Similarly, the market capitalization fell N2 billion, or 0.01 per cent, to N20.424 trillion, down from N20.426 trillion on Wednesday.
Price depreciation of major and medium capitalised equities such as Honeywell Flour Mill, Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Livestock Feeds, and United Capital drove the market’s negative performance.
The market breadth was negative at the closing, with 21 losers outnumbering nine gainers.
Cornerstone Insurance, which closed at 48k per share, led the losers’ list in percentage terms with 7.69%.
Learn Africa lost 5.56 per cent to settle at N1.36 per share, while AIICO Insurance gained 6.86 per cent to close at 95k.
Livestock Feeds lost 5.45 per cent to close at N2.08, while Honeywell Flour Mills declined by 5.13 per cent to close at N3.88 per share.
On the other hand, Chams drove the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by 4.76 per cent to close at 22k per share.
United Bank for Africa followed with a gain of 4.67 per cent to close at N7.85, while Cutix appreciated by 4.60 per cent to close at N5 per share.
Oando went up by 3.08 per cent to close at N4.68, while Nigerian Breweries appreciated by 1.25 per cent to close at N48.65 per share.
Also, the total volume traded fell by 1.0 per cent to 350.53 million shares worth N3.35 billion traded in 3,523 deals.
This was against a turnover of 354.06 million shares valued at N3.20 billion shares transacted in 4,095 deals on Wednesday.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 97.73 million shares worth N729.64 million.
Wema Bank followed with 74.856 million shares valued at N58.48 million, while Access Bank traded 47.75 million shares valued at N451.17 million.
Livestock Feeds sold 12.85 million shares worth N26.67 million, while Nigerian Breweries transacted 10.003 million shares valued at N486.82 million.