Nigerian equity market extends downtrend, dips 0.94%

The Nigerian equity market continued its bearish run on Wednesday, shedding 0.94 per cent on the back of losses by Unilever, Dangote Cement, Guinness and Flour Mills.

The All Share Index declined 0.94 per cent to end 21,100.54, while the market capitalisation decreased by ₦104.1 9billion to ₦1 0.9 9trillion. Consequently, YTD loss worsened to -21.39.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange has been operating virtually since the Lagos State called for restriction of movement to curtail the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The total volume of equities traded dropped by 63 per cent to 154million units, while value traded rose by 2.52% to ₦1.7 6billion.

The most active stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (3 8.7m units), GTBank (2 2.3m units) and FBNH (1 4.9m unit), while Zenith Bank (₦443.5m), GBank (₦391.1m) and MTNN (₦175.7m) led the value chart.

The ICT and Services Indices led the gainers’ chart, up by 5.9 7 per cent and 1.4 3 per cent respectively buoyed by gains in MTNN (+9.3 3 per cent) and NAHCO (+4.0 0 per cent). Similarly, the Agriculture index was up 0.18 per cent respectively on the back of buy interest in LIVESTOCK (+8.4 7 per cent). On the flip side, the losses in UNILEVER (-1 0.0 0 per cent), DANGCEM (-9.9 5 per cent), GUINNESS (-9.9 2 per cent) and Flour Mills

(-9.8 8%) dragged the Industrial Good and Consumer Goods indices lower by 9.3 1 per cent and 1.7 8 per cent respectively.