The outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) around the world continues to weigh heavily on investors as it triggered sell-offs of stocks by various investors.
All-share index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, which is the major metric used in measuring Market performance, plummeted by 2.41% to close at 25,647.54 index points compared to its initial index of 26,279.61 points while the equity market capitalization suffered a N329.39 billion loss at the detriment of market investors.
The equity market capitalization, which opened on Monday at N13.7 trillion, dipped 2.4% to close trading session at N13.4 trillion. The downturn could be attributed to sell-offs recorded in large and medium capitalized stocks such as Stanbic IBTC, GTBank, Nigerian Breweries, Zenith Bank, Cadbury and UACN. This negative development is feared to continue with the spread of the deadline disease, as solution is not in sight.
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Top gainer
Only Consolidated Hallmark Insurance was the gainer on the floor of the Stock Market yesterday, gaining 7.14% to close at N0.3 compared to its opening value of N0.28.
Top losers
The bourse recorded 39 losers as against 1 gainer, from which nine of them lost the maximum of 10% on a day characterized by significant losses.
Access Bank, however, tops the rank of decliners as it dipped 10% to close at N7.65 from an opening value of N8.5 followed by Conoil which also dipped 10% to close at N16.2.
Cornerstone Insurance also dipped 10% as it declined from an opening value of N0.5 to close at N0.45; Fidelity Bank shed 10% to close at N1.8 while Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) rounded off the list with 10% loss to close at N2.25.
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Top trades by volume
Zenith Bank attracted the highest volume sales of stocks on Monday as it traded in 53.51 million units of shares valued at N907.08 million across 70 transactions followed by Transcorp Plc, which traded in 23.06 million units of shares at N18 million across 95 deals.
GTBank traded in 15.21 million units of shares at N336.81 million in 208 transactions; Skyway Aviation recorded trades in 8.37 million units of shares at N19.59 million across 5 deals while Law Union Insurance rounded off the list with trades in 6.87 million units of shares ay N6.69 million across 78 deals.
