Business
Zenith Bank, Access Bank, FBNH drag Nigerian equity market further down
The Nigerian equity market dipped for the third consecutive trading session on Wednesday, driven by losses in Zenith Bank, Access Bank, FBNH and 20 others.
The All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 72.41 absolute points, representing a 0.28 per cent decline to close at 25,424.91 points, the Market shed N37.77 billion, representing a contraction of 0.28 per cent to close at N13.26 trillion.
The volume and value of equities traded climbed 8.4 per cent and 42.4 per cent respectively to 269.6 million units and ₦2.9 billion.
Zenith Bank (35.8m units), FBNH (33.4m units) and UBA (29.8m units) were the most active stocks, while GTBank (₦605.1m), Zenith Bank (₦592.1m) and MTNN (₦526.7m) led by value.
The top gainers were FIDSON (+7.3%), PZ (+6.3%) and CUSTODIAN (+3.1%), while ROYALEX (-10.0%), LIVESTOCK (-9.1%) and CILEASING (-9.0%) lost the most.
Analysts at Afrinvest are projecting that investors to take positions in fundamentally sound stocks in subsequent trading session and expect the equities market to close the week in bearish.
The Industrial Goods index was the lone gainer, up 0.1 per cent on the back of price appreciation in WAPCO (+0.8%).
Conversely, the Banking and Insurance indices lost 1.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively, driven by sell-offs in Zenith Bank (-3.0%), Access Bank (-3.0%) and WAPIC (-2.9%).
Also, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices fell 0.2 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively on the back of sell pressures in VITAFOAM (-4.7%), Honey Flour Mills (-4.3%) and OANDO (-1.3%).
