Trading at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Ltd. started the week on Monday with the market capitalisation shedding ₦9 billion.
The market capitalisation had opened the week at N20.591 trillion but dropped ₦9 billion or 0.04 per cent to close at N20.582 trillion.
Also, the All-Share Index dipped 16.94 points or 0.04 per cent to close at 39,505.40 from 39,522.34 on Friday.
Consequently, month-to-date and year-to-date returns stood at 2.5 per cent and -1.9 per cent respectively.
The market’s negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; CAP, Lafarge Africa, Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated.
Analysts at United Capital Plc said that, “This week, we expect the market to rally on the back of incoming earnings releases from large-cap banking names.”
They added that a sustained decline in fixed income yields could trigger favourable sentiment toward the equities market.
However, the market closed positively with 24 gainers as against 15 losers.
MRS Oil led the gainers’ chart in percentage terms with 9.92 per cent to close at ₦13.85 per share.
May and Baker followed with 9.77 per cent to close at ₦4.83, while Honeywell Flour Mill went up by 9.76 per cent to close at ₦2.25 per share.
Mutual Benefits Assurance rose by 8.82 per cent to close at 37k, while FTN Cocoa Processors gained 6.82 per cent each to close at 47k per share.
On the other hand, Associated Bus Company led the laggards’ chart in percentage terms by 8.33 per cent to close at 33k per share.
Lasaco Assurance followed with 6.67 per cent to close at ₦1.40, while Livestock Feeds was down by 4.81 per cent to close at ₦1.98 per share.
Fidelity Bank lost 4.80 per cent to close at ₦2.38, while Champion Breweries shed 4.55 per cent to close at ₦2.10 per share.
Also, the total volume of trades declined by 25.2 per cent to 141.28 billion units valued at ₦1.64 billion exchanged in 3,393 deals.
This was in contrast with 188.84 million shares worth ₦3.22 billion achieved in 3,267 deals on Friday.
Transactions in the shares of eTranzact International Plc topped the activity chart with 16.188 million shares valued at ₦33.348 million.
Fidelity Bank followed with an exchange of 10.44 million shares worth ₦24.33 million, while Transcorp traded 9.77 million shares valued at ₦9.28 million.
Consolidated Hallmark Insurance sold 9.18 million shares worth ₦4.41 million, while Access Bank transacted 7.59 million shares valued at ₦69.03 million.