Nigerian Equity Market Declines N156 Billion This Week

The Nigerian equity market experienced a decline of N156 billion amid cautious trading sentiment, closing the week at N200,913.06 points, a decrease of 0.12% from the previous week. The market capitalization dropped to N128.969 trillion from N129.125 trillion.

This decline was attributed to profit-taking and portfolio rebalancing as investors opted for securities with earlier gains rather than taking fresh positions. Despite this pullback, the market has shown a strong year-to-date return of 29.11%.

Trading activity weakened significantly, with total trade volume plunging by 54.91% to 3.950 billion units and total trade value falling by 34.57% to N201.312 billion across 359,642 deals. The financial services sector led trading activity, while the banking index faced declines due to price drops in major banks.

Notable gainers included Presco and Aradel, while Livestock Feeds and Fidson Healthcare were among the top losers.