Equities Market Decline as Investors Lose N139.3bn; All-Share Index Drops by 34bps

Following the Christmas holiday break, investors at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) were met with a downturn in the equities market. The All-Share Index fell by 34 basis points, settling at 73,768.64 points. This downward shift marked the beginning of the week on a negative note for the market.

Key Players in The Downturn

Dangote Cement, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, and Dangote Sugar, some of the industrial giants in the Nigerian stock market, experienced sell-offs leading to losses in their stocks by 2.19 percent, 6.01 percent, and 1.31 percent respectively. These heavyweights played a significant role in the day's overall market decline.

Market Performance Metrics

The market downturn led to a moderation of the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns, which are now at +3.4 percent and +43.9 percent, accordingly.

By the close of trading, it was evident that equity investors were hit with a significant loss as N139.34 billion was wiped off their investments. This decrease in value brought the market capitalization to a close at N40.37 trillion.

Diverse Sentiment Across The Board

Despite the overall negative trend, market sentiment was mixed. While the market breadth—measuring the number of gainers against losers—remained positive with 38 gainers compared to 21 losers. In particular, Eterna Oil and Mansard Assurance stood out with an appreciation in share value of 10.0 percent each. Conversely, UACN and Deap Capital were among the major losers, with their shares falling by 10.0 percent and 7.3 percent, respectively.

Sectorial Performance Overview

Across different sectors, performance was varied. The Insurance index climbed by the highest margin, gaining 3.06 percent. The Oil/Gas and Banking indexes also experienced modest gains, whereas the Consumer and Industrial Goods sectors were not as fortunate, recording declines as a result of sell-offs.

Trading Activities and Turnover

When analyzing the day's trading activities, there was a noticeable decrease in transaction volume compared to the previous session, with a 21.99 percent reduction in traded value.

Investors exchanged a total of 432.91 million shares valued at N12.94 billion across 8,901 deals. Leading the pack, Jaiz Bank had the highest number of traded units, while Geregu Power topped in terms of transaction value with deals summing up to N6.06 billion.

NGX, sell-off, equities