Domestic equities close lower, shed N599bn

The domestic equities market on Tuesday closed southward, declining by N599 billion as bears dominated the trading activities.

Market capitalization of listed equities depreciated by 0.38 per cent to N158.015 trillion from N158.614 trillion it closed the previous year.

The NGX All Share Index also fell by 927.70 basis points to 244802.83 points from 245730.53 points recorded on Monday.

The market breath was negative with N13 advancers against 40 losers, bringing year to date return lower to 57.32 per cent.

A review of transactions showed that Ava Capital led gainers table with 9.94 per cent to close at N9.95 per unit, NReit followed with a gain of 9.71 per cent to close at N113.00 per share, Livestock increased 9.49 per cent to close at N8.65 per unit, Neimeth International pharmaceutical companies up by 8.43 per cent to close at N9.00 per unit, AIICO insurance grew by 3.47 per cent to close at N4.18 per share.

On the contrary, Multiverse and Living Trust Insurance topped losers chart, dropping by 10 per cent each to close at N22.95 and N3.42 respectively per unit, Mcnichols trailed with a loss of 9.92 per cent to close at N5.45 per share, Thomas Wyatt down by 9.87 per cent to close at N3.56 per unit, Eterna Plc declined by 9.09 per cent to close at N33.00 per unit.

Further analysis indicated that volume of trades up by 636.990 million shares, representing 69.01 per cent as investors traded 1.560 billion shares against 923.010 million, the value of trades declined by 24.37 per cent to settle at N28.626 billion.

Transactions on the shares of Japaul Gold led market activities with 904.403 million shares valued at N2.717 billion.

Sterling Bank followed with account of 53.975 million shares cost N431.818 million, FCMB group traded 49.443 million shares cost N544.751 million, Chams Plc exchanged 44.807 million shares valued at N198.998 million while Neimeth International pharmaceutical sold a total of 42.438 million shares cost N327.829 million.