N5.1 trillion lost in Nigerian stock market over four days

The Nigerian stock market continued its decline yesterday. The All-Share Index fell by 0.37%, closing at 242,227.31 points.

The market has struggled with sell pressure for four days, leading to a loss of N5.1 trillion.

On Monday, sell-offs caused a drop of N1.81 trillion in the Nigerian Exchange market capitalisation.

On Tuesday, investors lost N478 billion. The downward trend persisted on Wednesday with a loss of N2.28 trillion.

By Thursday, the market's year-to-date return dropped to +55.66%. This also wiped out N580.65 billion from market capitalisation, which ended at N155.36 trillion.

Trading activity fell sharply across the board. Volume, turnover, and deal count decreased by 36.24%, 34.05%, and 17.28%. This brought totals to 588.46 million shares, N42.27 billion, and 57,352 transactions.

The market breadth was negative at 0.8x. There were 30 decliners led by MCNICHOLS, ABCTRANS, ETERNA, ARADEL, and NPFMCRFBK. They outnumbered 24 advancers, with INTENEGINS, OMATEK, ABBEYBDS, CUTIX, and JOHNHOLT showing the biggest gains.

Most sectors performed poorly. Oil & Gas fell by 4.90%, Commodity by 3.28%, Insurance by 0.58%, and Consumer Goods by 0.03%. Only Industrial (+0.56%) and Banking (+0.31%) went against the trend.

As we approach Friday’s session, stock analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited expect the market to remain bearish. They believe continued profit-taking will keep affecting investor sentiment.