Stock Market Down By N222 Billion

Despite the market breath closing on the positive rout, activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday finished the trading session on the downtrend as losses from some blue-chip stocks helped the bears to sustain their grip on the equity market.

The market breath closed positive with a record of 21 gainers against 13 losers.

Consequently, the All-Share Index dipped 425.24 basis points or 2.02 per cent to close at 20,669.38 index points as against 21.094.62 recorded the previous trading session while market capitalisation of equities depreciated by N222bn from N10.993tn last Friday to N10.771tn as market sentiment remained on the negative territory.

Meanwhile, a turnover of 336.4 million shares exchanged in 4,184 deals was recorded in the day’s trading.

The premium subsector was the most active (measured by turnover volume) with 167.3 million shares exchanged by investors in 2,313 deals.

Volume in the subsector was largely driven by activities in the shares of FBNH Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.

Also, the banking subsector boosted by the activities in the shares of GTBank Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc followed with a turnover of 82.2 million shares in 616 deals.