Nigeria’s equities market sees mixed finish amidst bearish sentiments

By Samuel Bankole

The Nigerian local bourse closed Wednesday’s trading session with a mixed performance, although tilted towards a bearish stance as the benchmark index settled at 98,223.97 points.

Notable sell-offs were observed in Tier-1 banking stocks, including ZENITHBANK (-2.59%), GTCO (-1.43%), and ACCESSCORP (-1.98%), which outweighed the gains recorded in MTNN (+2.33%), OKOMUOIL (+9.98%), and FCMB (+3.25%).

This trend left the market in the red, causing the year-to-date (YTD) return to slip to 31.36%, while the market capitalization shed N2.56 million to close at N55.55 trillion.

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An analysis of Thursday’s market activities revealed a higher trade turnover compared with the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 9.94%.

A total of 319.08 million shares valued at N9.18 billion were exchanged in 8,121 deals.

UBA (+0.00%) led the volume chart with 79.98 million units traded, while MTNN (+2.33%) topped the value chart with deals worth N2.56 billion.

Market breadth closed negative at a ratio of 0.72-to-1, with declining issues outnumbering the advancing ones. PZ (-10.00%) emerged as the top laggard among seventeen others, while OKOMUOIL (+10.00%) led twelve others on the leader’s log.

The mixed performance reflects the ongoing volatility in the equities market, influenced by both domestic and global factors, and underscores the importance of strategic portfolio management in navigating the evolving market landscape.