Nigeria Equities trading begins week on negative note

Equities trading on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Group Limited (NGX) began the week on a negative note on Monday.

The downward trend caused by huge losses in the shares of Nigerian Breweries, BUA Cement and GTCO is coming after the Exchange remained upbeat last week.

A stock analyst in Lagos, South-west Nigeria, Rotimi Fakayejo, said the market is expected to come up strong within the week despite the losses.

At the end of the day’s business, the overall market capitalization depreciated by N80 billion to close at N21.215 trillion, showing a 0.35 percent decrease compared to the N21.295 trillion from Friday’s trade.

Also, the All-Share Index (ASI), which measures the performance of quoted companies, dipped by 154.36 basis points, representing a decline of 0.35 percent, to close at 40,714.00 points lower than Friday’s 40,868.36 points.

Investors saw a total volume of 191,311,638 million units of shares exchange hands in 4,395 deals.

The market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, saw 18 gainers and 17 losers to close the day’s trading session.

On the price movement, NEM Insurance Plc led the gainers’ chart with a price gain of N0.19k to close at N2.10k. It was followed by Champion Breweries Plc with a price gain of N0.20k to close at N2.30k, while Ecobank Transnational Inc. also gained N0.60k to close at N6.90k.

On the flipside, Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc led the losers’ chart, with a loss of N0.02k to close at N0.22k. Nigeria Breweries followed with a closing price of N46.50k after losing N3.00, while AIICO Insurance Plc lost N0.05k to close at N0.90k.