Friday, March 29, 2024

Bearish sentiment lingers as Airtel, Seplat, others drag local bourse index down by 2.08%

BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO

The domestic bourse sustained negative momentum into the new week as its All-Share index plunged by 2.08 percent to close at 53,750.77 points amid sustained profit-taking activities.

Specifically, share prices of bellwethers such as Airtel Africa Plc, Seplat Plc, WAPCO, Nigerian Breweries Plc, and MTN Nigeria fell by 8.31 percent, 4.17 percent, 2.70 percent, 2.63 percent, and 1.27 percent respectively.

Consequently, the year-to-date gain of the local bourse declined to 4.87 percent as the total number of losers (21) outweighed that of the gainers (5).

The general market bearish mood was reflected in the sectoral performance as all five sub-gauges closed in the red – the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil/Gas, and the NGX Industrial indexes declined by 0.23 percent, 0.55 percent, 0.79 percent, 2.02 percent, and 0.14 percent respectively.

In the broad and narrow markets, the NGX Premium, NGX Mainboard, and NGX-30 indices decreased by 77 basis points, 304 basis points, and 197 basis points, respectively. Meanwhile, trading activity improved chiefly driven by huge transactions in MTNN Shares. Hence, total deals and value increased by 12.60 percent, and 12.11 percent, respectively, to 3,279 trades and N4.34 billion. In terms of volume, GTCO was the most active stock, with 12.84 million shares worth N318.51 million changing hands in 251 deals.

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