Investors lost N154bn on Monday on the back of the decline suffered by Dangote Sugar, Secure Electronic Technology, CAP and 17 other stocks.
Bearish trading followed the prevailing sentiments in the market in recent times as investors’ appetites waned.
This is despite the local bourse seeing more advancing stocks (25) than declining ones (19) at the close of trading.
On the gainers’ chart were Sterling Financial Holding Company, FBN Holdings and Honeywell Flour Mill, which gained 9.95 per cent, 9.83 per cent and 9.40 per cent to close trading at N4.20, N22.35 and N3.49, respectively.
Sectoral performance remained mostly bearish, with losses across various indices. The banking, insurance, and consumer goods sectors experienced declines of 0.41 per cent, 0.70 per cent, and 0.79 per cent, respectively.
Meanwhile, the oil and gas and industrial goods indices remained relatively stable, dipping marginally by 0.02 per cent each.
Regardless of this downturn, trading activity increased, indicating positive market movement.
Total deals, volume, and value increased by 32.39 per cent, 4.59 per cent, and 1.20 per cent, respectively.
There were 8,714 trades, with a trading volume of 277.24 million units valued at N5.08bn.
The shares of United Bank for Africa emerged as the most traded security in terms of volume and value, with 34.56 million units exchanged, valued at N799.45m in 646 deals.
Analysts have said that the impact of high yields in the fixed-income segment of the economy will continue to drive sell-offs in the equity market as investors move on.
“We expect the bearish sentiments amongst investors to persist in the local equities market given the recent developments in the fixed-income market.
“The impact of the high yields in the fixed-income market will continue to drive sell-offs as investors switch their asset classes to less risky assets. However, we expect pockets of bargain-hunting activities across dividend-paying stocks, in anticipation of the corporates’ qualification and payment dates,” United Capital in its update on Monday.
