The Nigerian Stock Exchange began the first trading week on a negative note, as the All-share index fell by 0.44%. The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in large capitalized stocks.
The All-Share Index (ASI) dipped by 0.44% to 24,200.60 index points. Accordingly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses stands at -1.12% and -9.92%, respectively, while market capitalization stood at N12.624 trillion after declining by N55.17 billion.
Market activity level was inverse to the broad index, as total volume and value traded significantly improved by 75.67% and 139.55% to 231.23 million units and 2.154 billion. STERLNBK was the most traded stock by volume at 77.5million units, while MTNN finished the most traded stock by value at N1.124 billion.
Market breadth closed in favor of the bear with 17 tickers closing in the red against 14 gainers.
With the exception of the Industrial and Consumer Goods Indexes which closed 0.26% and 0.08% higher during the day due to price appreciation in NACHO, LIVESTOCK, and BUA CEMENT respectively, all other sectors were negative.
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The decline in MOBIL and Eterna Oil pressured the Oil & Gas index down by 1.91%, the Banking index trailed to wane by 1.70% as a result of decline in ZENITHBANK and GTB, while losses in WAPIC, CUSTODIAN and LAW UNION prompted a 0.35% decline in the Insurance Index.
Top gainers
CAVERTON up 7.73% to close at N1.95, CILEASING up 6.33% to close at N4.2, AFRIPRUD up 6.25% to close at N4.25, NASCON up 5.26% to close at N10, BUACEMENT up 0.61% to close at N41.2
Top losers
MOBIL down 9.97% to close at N173.4, ETERNA down 6.70% to close at N2.09, ZENITHBANK down 2.99% to close at N16.2, GUARANTY down 2.00% to close at N22, MTNN down 0.95% to close at N115.
Outlook
Nigerian bourse finished on a bearish note, triggered by sell-offs in bluechip stocks. Nairametrics envisage cautious buying, as geopolitical uncertainty heightens.
