After a series of positive trading sessions earlier this week, the Nigerian equities market lost N74 billion at the close of trading on Wednesday.
This followed a dip in the share prices of stocks like MBENEFIT, ROYALEX, and NEM amongst others on the trading floor.
After five hours of trading at the capital market, the equity capitalization decreased to ₦66.1 trillion from ₦66.2 trillion posted by bourse on Tuesday.
The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) decreased to 105,475.38 points from 105,593.28 points recorded the previous day.
The market breadth was positive as 30 stocks advanced and 18 stocks declined, while 72 stocks remained unchanged in 10,908 deals.
MBENEFIT, ROYALEX, NEM led other gainers with 10%, 9.88% and 9.84% growth each in prices to close at N0.88, N0.89 and N13.40 from the previous N0.80, N0.81 and N12.20 per share.
UHOMREIT, ABC TRANSPORT and UNIVERSAL INSURANCE led other price decliners with 9.93%, 9.80% and 8.83% dip in share prices to close at N51.25, N1.38 and N0.55 from the previous N56.90, N1.53 and N0.60 per share.
On the volume index, SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE led trading with 607 million shares in 48 deals followed by CUTIX which traded 358 million shares in 96 deals.
FIDELITY BANK traded 61 million shares in 505 deals.
On the value index, SEPLAT traded stocks worth N3.5 billion in 46 deals followed by FIDELITY BANK which traded equities worth N1.1 billion in 505 deals.
ZENITH BANK traded shares valued at N1 billion in 706 deals.
By: Babajide Okeowo
