The domestic equities market on Friday took a negative direction, declining by N103 billion at the close of transactions on Friday.
This resulted in the market capitalisation of listed equities depreciating by 0.07 per cent to N256.444 trillion from N156.547 trillion it closed on Thursday.
The NGX All Share Index also went down by 159.97 basis points to 243798.76 points from 243958.73 points traded the previous day.
Although the market breadth was positive with 30 advancers against 27 decliners, losses recorded in some mid cap stocks weighed down on the market, bringing year-to-date return to 56.72 per cent.
The downward performance recorded in the market during the day was driven by depreciation in the small and mid cap stocks, including Access Holdings Company; FirstHoldco Plc.; Stanbic IBTC Bank; Fidelity Bank; Guinness, and 25 others.
An analysis of the trading showed that NIDF led the gainers’ table with 10 per cent to close at N148.50 per unit; International Breweries followed with a gain of 9.92 per cent to close at N13.30 per share; NEM insurance added 9.61 per cent to close at N27.95 per share; JaizBank added 6.36 per cent to close at N9.20 per unit, while UPDC gained 6.33 per cent to close at N6.33 per unit.
On the contrary, Thomas Way topped the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N2.43 per unit; Guinness Nigeria Plc trailed with a loss of 9.99 per cent to close at N329.00 per share; Ikeja Hotel declined by 9.96 per cent to close at N42.50 per unit; Zichis dropped by 9.94 per cent to close at N26.37 per unit; Mcnichols depreciated by 9.91 per cent to close at N5.00 per share.
The volume of trades declined by 1.215 billion, representing 73.35 per cent, as investors traded 441.266 million against 1.656 billion recorded the previous day; the value of shares dropped by 82.67 per cent to N19.492 billion in 44938 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Access Holdings Company led the gainers’ table with 39.815 million shares valued at N998.978 million; Fidelity Bank followed with account of 26.275 million shares valued at N505.562 million; Sterling Bank traded 23.241 million shares cost N175.602 million; Zenith Bank exchanged 18.868 million shares worth N1.314 billion.