Equity market continues its down trajectory, losing N2 billion

PZ Cussons, International Breweries, and eighteen other companies saw their share prices decline on Wednesday, which resulted in the Nigerian Exchange losing N2 billion.

The market capitalization dropped by 0.004% to settle at N55.55 trillion, while the benchmark index fell by 0.005% to 98,223.97 points.

Bearish activity predominated Wednesday’s trading, as there were more decliners (20) than gainers (14) on the market.

PZ Cussons, which dropped 10% to close at N34.20, and International Breweries, which dropped 9.89% to close at N3.92, were two notable examples of the dropping stocks.

In order to list a rights issue of 161,172,395,100 ordinary shares of two kobo each at N3.65 per share, based on six new ordinary shares for every one owned, International Breweries has requested permission from the Nigerian Exchange.

McNichols (-9.73%) and Sterling Financial Holding Company (-9.59%) were the other losers, closing at N1.02 and N4.43, respectively.

On the gainers’ chart, Cutix increased 5.26 percent to close trading at N3, Tantalizer gained 8.33 percent to N0.39, and Okomu Oil Palm advanced 9.98 percent to N255.70.

There was a gain in traded value, which rose by 9.94 percent to N9.18 billion, despite the dampened trading activity levels, as shown by a 15.58 percent decline in total deals and a 25.04 percent decline in trading volume, totaling 8,121 trades and 319.08 million units, respectively.

The banking, insurance, consumer, and industrial goods indexes all saw losses of 1.03 percent, 0.15 percent, 0.27 percent, and 0.22 percent, respectively, indicating that the industry as a whole remained pessimistic.

MTN Nigeria dominated in traded value, making transactions of N2.56bn, while UBA led the pack in trading volume, transacting 79.98 million units in 689 trades.