The Nigerian stock market reversed its previous day’s gains on Tuesday, closing on a bearish note as investors lost N599 billion in market value.
Market capitalisation declined by 0.38 per cent, falling from N158.614 trillion at the opening of trading to N158.015 trillion at the close. The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) also shed 927.70 points, or 0.38 per cent, to settle at 244,802.83, down from 245,730.53 recorded in the previous session.
The latest decline reduced the market’s Year-to-Date (YTD) return to 57.32 per cent, reflecting weaker investor sentiment.
Trading ended with a negative market breadth as 40 stocks recorded losses, while only 13 equities posted gains.
Multiverse Mining and LivingTrust Mortgage Bank led the losers’ chart, with both stocks declining by 10 per cent to close at N22.95 and N3.42 per share, respectively.
On the gainers’ table, AVA Capital emerged as the best-performing stock after rising by 9.94 per cent to close at N9.95 per share. Nigeria Real Estate Investment Trust followed with a 9.71 per cent gain to close at N113 per share.
Despite the market downturn, trading activity strengthened significantly. Total trading volume surged by 69.25 per cent to 1.56 billion shares valued at N28.73 billion, exchanged in 54,160 deals.
Japaul Gold dominated trading volume with 904.42 million shares, accounting for 57.89 per cent of the day’s total volume, while MTN Nigeria recorded the highest value of transactions at N3.25 billion, representing 11.31 per cent of total market turnover.
