By Chukwuma Umeorah
The Nigerian stock market began the week on a negative note as the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.15 per cent to close at 105,799.17 points. Market capitalisation also dropped marginally by 0.01 per cent to N66.34 trillion, reflecting a subdued sentiment that resulted in a N7.8 billion loss for investors and consequently trimming the year-to-date (YTD) return to 2.79 per cent.
Monday’s downturn was driven by a price adjustment on Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, following the listing of 16,666,666,667 ordinary shares at 50 kobo each at N4.50 per share through a private placement. The downward movement in the stock dampened market sentiment, with 18 stocks declining while 35 advanced.
The top gainers included Academy adding 9.92 per cent closing at N2.88 per share, Neimeth gained 8.43 per cent at N2.70 per share while the value of Tantalizers went up by 6.83 per cent closing the day’s trade a N3.13 per share
On the flip side, Etransact led the losers chat declining 10.00 per cent to close at N5.85 per share, followed by Sunuassur which lost 9.92 per cent at N4.63 per share while Prestige lost 8.26 per cent and ended the day’s trade at N1.00 per share.
Sectoral performance was largely negative, with the Banking, Insurance, Consumer Goods, and Oil & Gas indices shedding 0.20 per cent, 1.07 per cent, 0.38 per cent, and 0.19 per cent, respectively. The Industrial Goods and Commodity sectors, however, remained unchanged.
Trading activity was mixed, as total transaction volume and value surged by 36.3 per cent and 36.25 per cent, respectively, while the number of deals dipped by 27.74 per cent. In total, 477.51 million shares exchanged hands in 13,520 transactions, amounting to N7.05 billion in value.
The day’s biggest transactions by volume were led by Jaiz Bank, Zenith, Sovrenins, Prestige and Fidelity Bank, accounting for a significant portion of the market turnover.