Equity investors lost N67bn on Thursday, as the Nigerian Exchange returned to the red zone.
Sell-offs in banking, insurance, and consumer goods sectors dragged the All-Share Index to a 0.12 per cent decline, closing at 101,239.10 points, while the market capitalisation, which dipped at the same rate, settled at N55.40tn.
The exchange’s year-to-date returns moderated to 35.39 per cent.
The local bourse managed to return to the green zone on Wednesday with a gain of N165bn, following two days of bearish trading.
Amid the prevailing downturn in the market, trading activities also stayed downbeat, with traded volume decreasing by 16.43 per cent to 252.9 million units.
Total traded value also dropped by 24.54 per cent to N4.94bn, accompanied by a 15.83 per cent dip in the total deals, totalling 7,248 trades.
Market breadth, which is the measure of investors’ sentiment, was negative, as reflected in 22 gainers and 28 losers.
The gainers were led by Sunu Assurances Plc, Omatek and Juli.
Leading the decliners were Daar Communications, which lost 10 per cent to close at N0.72; Wema Bank shed 9.93 per cent to close at N7.80 and PZ Cussons lost 9.89 per cent to close at N24.60 per share.
Across sectors, bearish sentiments were widespread, notably in the banking, insurance and consumer goods sectors, which declined by 0.44 per cent, 0.22 per cent and 0.08 per cent respectively, driven by sell-sentiments in Wema Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Royal Exchange and PZ Cussons.
The industrial goods sector was the only gaining sector with a 0.04 per cent improvement, on the back of buy interests in Lafarge Africa, while the oil & gas index traded flat.
FBN Holdings emerged as the most traded security by volume and value, with 31.86 million units traded worth N917.27m in 381 trades.
