By Chinwendu Obienyi 

Nigeria’s stock market yesterday, succumbed to sell pressure as the All-Share Index shed 1.53 per cent to close at 50,868.52 points, ending its thirteen-day winning streak. 

The market had on Wednesday,  extended Tuesday’s positive performance driven by investor’s interest in NB (+10 per cent) as the All-Share Index (ASI) inched higher by 0.1 per cent to 51,657.56 points. Consequently, the Year-to-Date return had increased to +0.8 per cent.

However, sell-offs in index heavyweight, Airtel Africa (-8.26 per cent) was the major drag on the overall market followed by FBN Holdings and NGX Group. Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to -0.75 per cent, while market capitalization lost N429.77 billion to close at N27.706 trillion.

Analysing by sectors, the Consumer Goods (+1.3 per cent), Banking (+0.9 per cent), and Oil & Gas (+0.1 per cent) indices recorded gains, while the Insurance (-1.0 per cent) index declined. The Industrial Goods index closed flat.

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 86.4 per cent .A total of 138.72 million shares valued at N1.83 billion were exchanged in 3,673 deals. 

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Sterling Bank was the most active stock, trading over 29.15 million units valued at N41.01 million, GTCO followed with 19.94 million units worth N47.77 million while AccessCorp sold 11.34 million units valued at N99.85 million.

Despite the loss, investors’ appetite remained positive as 19 stocks appreciated in value while 15 others depreciated. 

Honeywell Flour topped the gainers’chart with 9.95 per cent to close at N2.43 per share, UACN was next with 4.88 per cent to close at N10.75, Nigerian Breweries increased by 4.21 per cent to close at N47, Academy rose by 3.94 per cent to close at N1.32 while Transcorp garnered 2.65 per cent to close at N1.16.

On the flipside, Airtel Africa led the laggards with 8.26 per cent to close at N1,500 per share. UPL followed with a loss of 7.37 per cent to close at N1.76, Wapic fell by 4.65 per cent to close at 0.41 Kobo, NAHCO dipped by 3.90 per cent to close at N7.40 while NGX Group decreased by 3.60 per cent to close at N24.10.