On Wednesday, the Nigerian equities market experienced a pullback from its bullish momentum earlier in the week, as the All-Share Index dropped by 0.29 percent to close at 102,836.13 basis points.
Consequently, investor sentiment weakened amid a wave of sell-offs, erasing N185 billion from market capitalisation. Overall, the market capitalisation of listed equities dropped by 0.29 percent to N63.15 trillion. Consequently, the Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.1 percent.
At the Nigerian Exchange, market breadth was evenly split, with 24 stocks declining and 24 advancing. Leading the losers’ chart were Multiverse Mining and Exploration, May & Baker Nigeria, Prestige Assurance, Guinea Insurance and Red Star Express, as their share prices declined by 9.87 percent, 9.78 percent, 7.69 percent, 7.45 percent and 4.75 percent, significantly dragging overall performance.
Sectoral analysis showed widespread bearish sentiment, with the Insurance sector suffering the steepest decline of 0.91 percent, led by losses in Prestige Assurance, Guinea Insurance, SUNU Assurance Nigeria, Cornerstone Insurance, Universal Insurance and AXA Mansard Assurance. The Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas, and Industrial Goods sectors also recorded marginal losses of 0.26 percent, 0.11 percent, and 0.18 percent, respectively. In contrast, the Banking sector displayed some resilience, gaining 0.61 percent.
Trading activity on the Nigerian Exchange was muted, with total deals and traded volumes falling by 17.74 percent and 10.34 percent, respectively, to 10,766 deals and 394.82 million units. However, traded value surged by 26.61 percent to N15.16 billion, buoyed by Access Holdings and Geregu as the most actively traded stocks. Access Holdings led in volume with 92 million units exchanged across 403 trades, while Geregu Power dominated in value, contributing a substantial N5.2 billion to the day’s turnover.
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