The Nigerian stock market suffered a setback on Wednesday, reversing gains from the previous session and shedding N337 billion in market capitalisation. The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) market capitalisation, which opened at N58.852 trillion, closed at N58.515 trillion, reflecting a 0.57 per cent drop.
Similarly, the All-Share Index fell by 0.57 per cent, losing 556.4 points to close at 96,567.24, down from 97,123.61 recorded the day before. As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return decreased to 29.15 per cent.
The market breadth closed slightly negative with 21 losers and 20 gainers. UBA led the losers, falling by 9.99 per cent to close at N31.55, followed by Oando, which dropped by 9.98 per cent to N65.40 per share. Other notable decliners included Thomas Wyatt Nigeria, NASCON, and LASACO.
On the other hand, Eunisell topped the gainers, rising by 9.87 per cent to N7.46, while Regency Alliance Insurance gained 9.30 per cent to close at 47k per share. Other gainers included Veritas Kapital Assurance, Daar Communications, and FCMB.
The market’s decline was largely attributed to sell-offs in major banking stocks such as Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank, and United Bank For Africa (UBA), along with Oando and Transnational Corporation.
Trading activity decreased significantly, with the total volume of shares traded dropping by 60.73 per cent compared to the previous session. A total of 418.39 million shares valued at N10.04 billion were exchanged in 9,021 deals, down from 3.60 billion shares valued at N25.57 billion in 10,679 deals. Sterling Nigeria led the activity chart with 79.65 million shares traded, while UBA topped the value chart with deals worth N2.57 billion.