Sell pressure drags Nigerian equity market further down by 1.19%

The downtrend in the Nigerian equity market persisted persists to eight consecutive trading days, as sell pressure caused it to decline 1.19 per cent on Wednesday, impaired by losses from Mobil, Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries and FBN Holdings.
The All-Share Index (ASI) was down 338.51 absolute points, representing 1.19 per cent drop to close at 28,093.76 points, the Market Capitalization shed N174.37 billion, representing 1.19 per cent decline to close at N14.47 trillion.
Of the 18 stocks that appreciated on Wednesday, Union Bank made the highest leap, gaining 9.85 per cent, while Conoil and Nascon shed 10 per cent to top 19 other losers.
Investors exchanged a total of 251.59 million units of shares worth N3.15 billion in 4,752 deals, as volume and value traded increased by 37 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.
The bourse return for this year has moderated to 4.66 per cent on the back of recent downturn.
The most active stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (98.13million units), FBNH (47.12million units) and FCMB (41.2million units), while Zenith Bank (₦1.87billion), GTBank (₦396.60million) and Dangote Cement (₦340.27million) led by value.
The banking sector which was up 0.92 per cent was the sole gainer owing to buy interest in Access Bank, FCMB and GTBank.
On the other hand, the Industrial Goods and Healthcare sectors declined by 5.12 per cent and 3.84 per cent respectively due to price declines in Glaxosmith and Dangote Cement.