The bears resurfaced on the Nigerian Exchange Ltd on Thursday with a loss of N391 billion following sell pressure in Dangote Cement and 14 other stocks.

Specifically, the stock market reversed positive gains with the market capitalisation dropping N391 billion to close at N21.751 trillion from N22.142 trillion on Wednesday.

In the same vein, the All-Share Index lost 749.94 points or 1.77 per cent to close at 41,685.22 against 42,435.16 achieved on Wednesday.

Consequently, the month-to-date loss increased to 3.6 per cent, while the year-to-date return moderated to 3.5 per cent.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Dangote Cement, UACN, Nigerian Exchange (NGXGroup), May & Baker and Cadbury.

Afrinvest Limited said that “In the final trading session, we expect an extension of today’s bearish performance, barring any positive driver.”

However, the market breadth closed positive with 22 gainers as against 15 losers.

Skyway Aviation Handling Company drove the gainers’ chart by 9.66 per cent to close at N4.88 per share.

Oando followed with 8.83 per cent to close at N4.93 and Wapic Insurance went up 8.51 per cent to close at 51k per share.

Mutual Benefits Assurance was up by 8.33 per cent to close at 26k, while Consolidated Hallmark Insurance appreciated by 8.16 per cent to close at 53k per share.

On the other hand, Dangote Cement and UACN led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N252 and N9 per share, respectively.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with 6.86 per cent to close at N1.63 per share.

May & Baker Nigeria declined by 6.46 per cent to close at N4.20, while Pharma Deko shed 5.21 per cent to close at N2 per share.

The total volume of shares traded declined by 27.1 per cent to 473.47 million units valued at N5.18 billion exchanged in 3,874 deals.

This was in contrast with 649.77 million shares worth N7.20 billion shares worth N7.20 billion achieved in 3,757 deals on Wednesday.

Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings (FBNH) topped the activity chart with 228.53 million shares valued at N2.61 billion.

Access Bank followed with 45.62 million shares worth N421.86 million, while Sterling Bank traded 37.86 million shares valued at N56.84 million.

Unity Bank sold 26.46 million shares worth N11.75 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 18.70 million shares worth N452.43 million. 

(NAN)