Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigeria’s stock market on Wednesday, sustained its downtrend as declines in bellwethers dragged market performance southward as its year-to-date (YTD) loss worsened to -14.8 per cent.
Consequently, the All Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.35 per cent to close at 26,790.00 points due to losses in FBN Holdings, Access Bank and Dangote Cement while market capitalisation fell by N72 billion to new low of N12.930 trillion.
Activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 9.6 and 52.2 per cent to 189.86 million units and N1.48 billion respectively, exchanged in 3,410 deals.
The most traded stocks by value were Transcorp (26.3 million units), Zenith Bank(22.5 million units) and CHAMS (18.9 million units) while Zenith Bank (N416.4 million), GT Bank (N207.1 million) and MTNN (N120.3 million) led by value.
At the sound of the closing gong, 26 stocks declined while 19 others advanced. Chip Plc topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.36 kobo per share, GlaxoSmithkline followed with 9.52 per cent to close at N5.70. Oando dropped 9.90 per cent to close at N3.50, Union Diagnostics lost 8.33 per cent to close at 0.22 kobo while Cadbury fell by 8.33 per cent to close at 0.22 kobo.
On the flipside, AG Leventis topped the gainers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 33 kobo per share. Livestock Feeds was next with 10 per cent to close at 55 kobo, Neimeth gained 8.96 per cent to close at 73 kobo, Wapic increased by 8.57 per cent to close at 38 kobo while Cutix garnered 8.27 per cent to close at N1.44.