Investors lose N86.6bn as market cap drops

Investors in the Nigerian equity market lost a total of N86.55 billion on Thursday, as the equity market capitalisation fell off the N14 trillion mark to close at N13.97 trillion.

The major market indicator, the All-share index also dipped 0.62% to close at 26,808.24 index points compared to its opening value of 26,974.38 points.

Investors have endured significant losses this month, losing a total of N893.46 billion to series of bearish trades since the beginning of the month as investors seek to sell off their shares due to persistent decline recorded in recent weeks.

Thursday’s bearish performance was attributed to losses recorded in large capitalized stocks such as; Stanbic IBTC, GTBank, Nigerian Breweries and Zenith Bank.

Despite the downturn witnessed in trading session, Jaiz Bank investors have reasons to smile as the bank’s stock top the gainer’s chart, gaining 9.43% to close at N0.58.

Law Union Insurance followed with 7.95% gain to close at N0.95 as Nigerian Aviation Handling (NAHCO) recorded 7.04% gain to close at N2.89. May & Baker recorded 4.81% to close at N1.96 while AIICO Insurance Plc rounded off the list with 3.66% gain to close at N0.85.

Flour Mills Nigeria was the worst-performing stock in the bourse today with 8.7% loss to close at N21 followed by Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, which dipped 6.9% to close at N0.27 and NPF Microfinance bank, which shed 6.25% to close at N1.05.

Stanbic IBTC recorded 6.23% loss to close at N36.1 from an opening value of N38.5 while Oando Plc rounded off the list with 5.66% loss to close at N3.

Zenith Bank traded the most today on the floor of the Stock market with trades recorded in 45.57 million units of shares at N868.09 million across 681 deals followed by Nigerian Breweries, which traded 39.5 million units of shares valued at N1.78 billion across 117 transactions.

GTBank made the ranks with trades in 35.62 million units of shares at N949.08 million across 369 deals, UBA traded in 25.5 million units of shares at N177.2 million across 374 deals while First Bank Holdings completed the list, having traded 18.61 million units of shares at N99.21 million across 304 deals.