Stock market dips further as Banks stocks depreciate

The Nigerian stock market dipped by N52.1billion following the depreciation in banking stocks, which analysts believe led to sell-offs which dragged the market lower on Tuesday.

Market capitalisation of equities dropped from N14.70 trillion on Monday to N14.65 trillion as at close of trading on Tuesday, while the All Share Index also depreciated by 0.35 per cent to close at 28,432.27 basis points, and the year-to-date return dropped to 5.9 per cent.

According to the analysts, the bearish trend in equities market was sustained as the price depreciation in Zenith Bank Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc persisted on Tuesday.

Despite the downturn of Stock performance, investors in Union bank, Wapic Insurance, Law Union Insurance, Lasaco Assurance and Transnational Corporation have reason to smile as the value of their stocks grew in today’s trade session.

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Union Bank of Nigeria and Wapic Insurance led the gainers chart on Tuesday as they both recorded 10% gain to close at N6.6 and N0.33 respectively. Law Union’s stock grew by 9.09% to close at N0.84, Lasaco Assurance gained 3.85% to close at N0.27 while Transnational Corporation gained 2.06% to close at N0.99.

NEM Insurance and Royal Exchange led the pool of the decliners on the bourse as they dipped 10% of their stock value to close at N2.16 and N0.27 respectively. Dangote sugar also recorded 9.78% loss to close at N12.45 followed by Chams Plc, which dipped 9.68% to close at N0.28 while Cap Plc rounded off the list with 9.6% loss to close at N22.6.

With regards to the actively traded stocks on the bourse today the FUGAZ dominated the list, as Zenith Bank traded in 68.48 million units of shares at N1.31 billion across 773 deals followed by First Bank Holdings, which traded in 32.66 million units of shares across 408 deals.

Access Bank traded in 28.93 million units of shares at N259.55 million across 237 deals, including UBA, which traded 23.63 million units of shares at N174.62 million across 325 deals while GTBank rounded off the list with trades in 13.27 million units of shares valued at N384.7 million across 257 deals.