NSE Weekly: Month-to-date loss hits N903 bn

The Nigerian bourse heaped up further losses this week as all the trading sessions recorded depreciation with the exception of Thursday, with the cumulative loss posted so far this month topping N903 billion.

The stranglehold of the bear has been fierce on trade since the start of the month as investors keep taking profit.

Dealmakers and traders will now hope that the earnings reports of large-cap companies and most of the big banks, due for release in the days ahead, come out impressive, which could help the market achieve a sustainable recovery.

All the key market performance indicators declined. The market reported a negative breadth as 55 losers emerged against 16 gainers. The All-Share Index and market capitalisation concurrently fell by 3.04%. While the former closed at 40,439.85 index points, the latter did at N21.156 trillion.

Trade volume of 2.683 billion shares worth N23.662 billion was recorded in 27,844 deals, relative to the 2.767 billion shares valued at N29.685 billion posted in 31,380 deals last week.

On the activity chart, the Financial Services sector led trade with 2.032 billion shares worth N13.416 billion in 14,832 deals. Specifically, it added 75.74 per cent and 56.70 per cent to the total equity volume and value respectively.

The Consumer Goods industry came next, trading 181.766 million shares worth N3.601 billion in 4,676 deals. The Conglomerates sector was third, trading 175.085 million shares priced at N324.006 million in 1,168 deals.

As regards index movement, all indices dipped except the NSE Growth Index which was up by 0.42 per cent. The NSE ASeM and NSE Sovereign Bond Indices did not budge.