The Nigerian stock market extended its bearish streak on Tuesday as fresh sell-offs in banking stocks dragged the benchmark index lower, wiping N544.48 billion from investors’ wealth.
The Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index declined 0.35 per cent to close at 241,611.23 points, moderating its year-to-date performance to 55.26 per cent.
Consequently, the market capitalization fell to N155.97 trillion, reflecting the continued weakness in investor sentiment.
The market breadth remained bearish at 0.61 times, with 36 stocks posting losses against 22 gains.
The top gainers were Haldane McCall, Veritas Capital Assurance, Tantalizer, RT Briscoe and Regal Insurance, while Red Star Express, Transnational Express, Meyer, Chellarams and Fortis Global Insurance led the losses.
Sectoral performance was largely negative, with the banking sector recording the largest decline of 1.82 percent. The consumer goods and oil and gas sectors also closed lower by 0.03 percent and 0.01 percent respectively.
The insurance sector, however, gained marginally 0.04 percent, while the industrial goods and raw materials sectors closed flat.
Despite the decline in the benchmark, transaction value increased significantly by 19.86 percent to N27.48 billion, indicating increased monetary activity during the session.
However, trading volume fell 67.69 percent to 429.84 million shares, while the number of transactions decreased 21.57 percent to 35,683 transactions.
The divergence between transaction value and volume suggests that transactions were concentrated in relatively higher value transactions despite the broader decline in market activity.
Analysts expect the stock market to gradually regain bullish momentum as investor confidence improves. However, persistent profit-taking could limit the pace of recovery and sustain volatility in the near term.
The latest drop comes after the market’s strong rally earlier in the year, with the All-Share Index still returning a year-to-date gain of 55.26 percent.
Investors are therefore expected to remain cautious as they balance opportunities for higher gains with the risk of profit-taking following the substantial market appreciation so far this year.
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