Bank stocks drag Nigerian equity market down despite positive economic report

The Nigerian equity market slipped on Monday on the back of decline in banking sectors, despite the positive economic report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The All-Share Index dipped by 1.27% to 27,041.03 points, the largest 1-day decline since falling by 1.55% on December 23, 2019.

The Month-to-Date loss increased to -6.25%, while the Year-to-Date return moderated to 0.74%.

Meanwhile, the Market Capitalization dropped by N181.08 billion, representing a dip of 1.27% to close at N14.09 trillion.

The NBS economic report showed that Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 2.25% in 2019, better than the 2.1% projection by the IMF.

The total volume of trades by investors increased by 1.83% to 429.00 million units, valued at NGN7.30 billion and exchanged in 4,533 deals.

LAW UNION was up 9.59% to emerge the top gainer, while GLAXOSMITH, NCR, and BOCGAS all shed 10% to top the losers’ chart.

GTBank was the most traded stock by volume and value at 177.13 million units and NGN4.79 billion respectively.

Performance was negative across all sector indices, with the Banking (-4.78%), Industrial Goods (-0.85%), Consumer Goods (-0.72%), Insurance (-0.47%), and Oil & Gas (-0.45%) indices all closing in the red.