BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The bears continued to dominate the local equities market as the NGX All-Share Index succumbed to a second successive loss, falling by 0.07 percent to 49,540.48 points, the lowest since 24 August.
Specifically, selloffs in Tier-ones GTCO (-0.25%), FBNH (-0.49%) and ACCESSCORP (-2.23%) offset the gains in ZENITHBANK (+0.77%) and UBA (+0.68%) leading to the market’s overall poor performance and keeping it on track for another weekly loss. Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return slipped to 15.98 percent, while the market capitalization contracted by N19.19bn to close at N26.72trn.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions decreasing by 57.03 percent. A total of 167.61m shares valued at N1.26bn were exchanged in 3,458 deals. COURTVILLE (+2.08%) led the volume chart with 38.81m units traded while ACCESSCORP (-2.23%) led the value chart in deals worth N249.36m.
Market breadth closed negative at a 2.13-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering the advancing ones. UACN (-6.82%) led sixteen (16) others on the laggard’s log while SOVRENINS (+3.85%) topped seven (7) others on the leader’s table.
