September 28, (THEWILL) – Continued decline in major banking stocks — GTCO (-0.72% from N34.75), Access Corporation (-0.32% against N15.55) and FBNH (-0.31% against N14.10) were the drivers of the market’s weak performance.
As a result, the ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return decreased to 29.65%, while the market capitalization shed ₦111.40 billion to close at ₦36.37 trillion.
Bearish activities on the local bourse led to the benchmark index fall by 0.31% to settle at 66,448.63 points putting the index on track for a third successive weekly loss.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 24.67%.
A total of 273.80m shares valued at 3.41bn were exchanged in 6,826 deals. Access Corp (-0.32%) led the volume and value charts with 45.88m units traded in deals worth ₦710.63 million.
Market breadth closed negative at a 3.00-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones.
Vitafoam (-9.92%) led twenty-three (23) others on the laggard’s log while Cornerstone (+7.88%) topped seven (7) others on the leader’s table.
On the currency market, the Naira plunged by N20.27 or 2.6 percent to settle at N775.35/$ against the strength it recorded last Tuesday when it traded N755.08/$. Wednesday was declared a public holiday by the Federal Government to mark the Muslim festival of Eid-el-Maulud.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
