By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The Nigerian Equities Market (NGX) closed on a negative note on Monday as the NGX All-Share Index declined by 0.25 per cent to close at 147,736.24 points, with year-to-date return at 59.20 percent.
The market loss was largely driven by selloffs in banking stocks, including ZENITHBANK, FIRSTHOLDCO, and ACCESSCORP.
Trading activity was mixed, as volume traded rose by 25.88 per cent to 405.36 million units, while value traded fell by 3.03 per cent to N19.86 billion.
ACCESSCORP dominated volume chart with 33.28 million units traded, followed by ZENITHBANK with 27.98 million units and JAIZBANK with 27.61 million units. In terms of value, ZENITHBANK led with N3.63 billion worth of shares traded, followed by ARADEL with N2.16 billion and FIRSTHOLDCO with N1.77 billion.
Sectoral performance closed mixed as two of the five indices under coverage gained, two lost and one closed flat. The insurance index led the gainers with 14 basis points, followed by the Consumer Goods index, which added 5 basis points.
On the losers table, the banking index declined the most by 181 basis points, followed by the oil & gas index, which shed 21 basis points, while the industrial index closed flat.
