The equities market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited declined by N38bn at the end of trading on Monday as 13 firms saw their share prices fall.

The NGX All-Share Index closed at 49,625.71 basis points on Monday from 49,695.12 on Friday, while the market capitalisation fell to N26.767tn from N26.805tn.

A total of 86.594 million shares valued at N1.17bn were traded by investors in 3 3,377 deals at the end of trading on the floor of the NGX on Monday.

Thirteen companies recorded share price appreciation while 13 firms’ share prices declined.

Analysts at Cordros Securities said, “The domestic equities market started the week’s trading with bearish sentiments, as investors took profits off FBNH (-3.3 per cent) and WAPCO (-2.8 per cent) stocks. Thus, the All-Share Index settled lower by 0.1 per cent at 49,626.05 points. Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.4 per cent and +16.2 per cent, respectively.

“The total volume traded declined by 72.9 per cent to 86.59 million units, valued at N1.17bn, and exchanged in 3,377 deals. GTCO was the most traded stock by volume and value at 19.47 million units and N385.59m, respectively.

“Analysing by sectors, the insurance (-1.4 per cent), banking (-0.5 per cent) and industrial goods (-0.3 per cent) indices declined, while the oil & gas and consumer goods indices closed flat.

“As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.1x) as 13 tickers gained relative to 12 losers. MULTIVERSE (+9.3 per cent) and FTNCOCOA (+6.7 per cent) topped the gainers’ list, while BETAGLA (-10.0 per cent) and NEM (-8.0 per cent) recorded the most significant losses of the day.”