Stock market closes week with N52bn decline

The Nigerian Exchange Ltd closed negative due to buy-interests and sell-offs in large and small capitalised stocks.

Also, the market capitalisation dropped by N52 billion to close at N28.681 trillion as against N28.733 trillion posted at the previous trading.

The downturn performance was mainly due to sell-offs in the MTNN stocks.

The All-share Index depreciated by 95.08 points or 0.18 per cent to close at 52,657.88 points from  52,752.96 recorded on Thursday.

Consequently, the Year-to-Date returns settled at 2.05 per cent.

The market breadth closed positive with 24 gainers and seven losers.

Analysts at Vetiva Securities Ltd. said, “As expected, there was negative reaction to Guinness latest numbers, where Profit After Tax (PAT) declined by 54 per cent in its H1’23 period.

“Hence, the 3.71 per cent decline in the stock’s share price. However, we did see investors buy up Tier-1 banks – Zenith and GTCO, while cross trades done at lower price levels in MTNN dampened market sentiment.

“We expect to see improvement in market performance at the start of the week, amid a positive market breadth.”

Cutix  led the losers’ chart in percentage terms by 8.11 per cent to close at N2.40, per share.

International Breweries followed with 6.12 per cent to close at N4.60, while Glaxo Smith kline dropped by 4.41 per cent to close at N6.50, per share.

Access Holdings shed 4.26 to close at N9, while Guiness Nigeria lost 3.71 per cent to close at N70, per share.

On the other hand, Cap Plc dominated the gainers’ chart in percentage terms by  9.83 per cent to close at  N19.55, per share.

Northern Nigeria Flour Mills followed with a gain of 9.76 per cent to close at N6.75, per share.

Japaul Gold & Ventures rose by 9.68 per cent to close at 34k, while Tripple Gee appreciated by 9.37 per cent  to close at N1.05, per share.

Also, Cornerstone Insurance rose by 9.26 per cent to close at 59k, per share.

Meanwhile, the traded turnover increased by 16 per cent with an exchange of 171.11 million valued at N2.34 billion in 3,599 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Fidelity Bank topped the activity chart with 26.65 million shares valued at N145.13 million.

Chams followed with 17.79 million shares worth N5.3 million, while FBN Holdings traded 15.14 million shares valued at N177.19 million.

Japaul Gold & Ventures traded 9.07 million shares valued at N3.01 billion, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company transacted 8.69 million shares worth N211.93 million.

NAN