Nigerian Exchange Declines by N590bn as Investors Cash Out
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) market capitalisation dropped by N590 billion as investors cashed out from stocks that posted significant gains in recent times.
The local bourse saw N5.11 trillion gain on Monday as pension money chased growth and underpriced stocks across sectoral indices. In a swift move, some investors saw an opportunity to take profit in anticipation of potential market corrections.
The NGX All-Share Index declined by 0.47% to close at 189,321.24 points, trimming the year-to-date return to 21.66%. Hence, stock market capitalisation also fell by 0.47%, shedding ₦590 billion to settle at ₦121.5 trillion.
This turnout was largely driven by profit-taking actions in MTNN (-3.81%), WAPCO (-4.04%), and lenders — ZENITHBANK (-10.00%), and UBA (-6.56%), which offset gains in BUAFOODS (+5.77%) and PRESCO (+3.03%).
Despite the broad market decline, sentiment remained mildly positive, with market breadth closing at 1.1x as 44 stocks advanced compared to 40 decliners.
ABCTRANS, ZICHIS, REDSTAREX, MEYER, and JAPAULGOLD topped the gainers’ chart, while MECURE, ZENITH BANK, SKYAVN, RTBRISCOE, and TRIPPLEG recorded the steepest losses.
Sectoral performance was largely negative, with the Banking index posting the sharpest decline of 3.69%, followed by Insurance (-0.57%), Industrial (-0.50%), and Oil & Gas (-0.06%). In contrast, the Consumer Goods and Commodity indices recorded gains of 2.54% and 0.32%, respectively.
Trading activity strengthened across most indicators, as the number of deals surged by 34.82% to 86,697 transactions and volume traded increased by 12.93% to 1.19 billion units, although total transaction value declined by 4.44% to ₦60.19 billion. Zenith Bank Hits New 12-Month High
