Equities Shed N14billion As Investors’ Anxiety Lingers

The Nigerian equity market,on Monday, July 11, continued trading on a negative note at the start of the new week, extending movements south to five successive trading sessions in a row.

At the end of the trading session, themarket capitalisation, which opened at N9.910 trillion declined by N14 billion to close at N9.896 trillion.

Market breadth was negative, with 16 gainers versus 32 losers. Guaranty Trust Bank recorded the highest price gain of 4.35 per cent, to close at N24 per share. NEM Insurance gained 3.96 per cent to close at N1.05, while Cutix appreciated by 3.03 per cent to close at N1.70 per share.

To this effect, Stock market analysts opined that the recent development in Skye Bank may drive the stocks of some Tier-2 Banks further lower as investors continue to weigh the impact of credit risk on peers.

However, Zenith Bank went up by 2.72 per cent to close at N15.87, while Custodian Insurance appreciated by 2.56 per cent to close at N4 per share.

On the other hand, Transcorp led the losers’ chart by 9.38 per cent, to close at N1.45 per share. Skye Bank shed 9.20 per cent to close at 79 kobo, while Diamond Bank declined by 7.96 per cent to close at N1.85 per share.

Oando depreciated by 7.45 per cent to close at N7.45, while Wapco went down by 5.03 per cent to close at N60.45 per share.

Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with 45.65 million shares valued at N1.1 billion. FBN Holdings followed with 32.29 million shares worth N117.01 million.

Total volume traded declined by 16.9 per cent to 450.5 million shares, valued at N5.7 billion, and traded in 6,360 deals at the end of the market session.