News Investigators/ The Nigerian stock market reversed its previous day’s gains on Wednesday as investors lost N648 billion following renewed selloffs in large and medium-cap stocks.
Market capitalisation declined by N648 billion, or 0.41 per cent, to close at N159.344 trillion from N159.992 trillion recorded on Tuesday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 1,004.38 points, or 0.41 per cent, to close at 246,980.17 against 247,984.55 posted in the previous session.
The downturn was driven by profit-taking in several blue-chip stocks, including Cornerstone Insurance, Legend Internet Plc, The Initiates Plc, Guinea Insurance, ABC Transport and 40 other declining equities.
Consequently, the market’s Year-to-Date return weakened to 58.71 per cent.
Market breadth also closed negative with 45 losers against 23 gainers, reflecting the bearish sentiment among investors.
Cornerstone Insurance and Legend Internet led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each, closing at N5.40 and N4.05 per share respectively.
Also, The Initiates dropped by 9.91 per cent, settling at N30, Guinea Insurance fell by 9.78 per cent, finishing at 83k while ABC Transport shed by 9.45 per cent, ending the session at N5.75 per share.
Conversely, Lasaco Assurance led the gainers’ chart by 10.per cent, settling at N2.42, Coronation Infrastructure Fund trailed by 9.98 per cent, closing at N154.30 and Nem Insurance climbed by 9.97 per cent, finishing at N34.20 per share.
Sunu Assurances gained by 9.83 per cent, ending the session at N3.91 and Prestige Assurance grew by 7.14 per cent, closing at N1.50 per share.
Market activity improved during the session, with total trading volume increasing by 12.11 per cent to 758.87 million shares valued at N33.79 billion in 55,251 transactions.
FCMB led the volume chart with 92.44 million shares traded, representing 12.18 per cent of the day’s total volume.
First Holdco topped the value chart with transactions worth N8.77 billion, accounting for 25.94 per cent of the total value traded.
NAN