The volume of trade in the market fell by nearly half this week, raising fears of incremental decline and acute investors’ apathy in the weeks ahead should Covid-19 tighten its stranglehold on the Nigerian bourse.
All the key market performance indicators closed lower this week. However, a positive market breadth was recorded as 34 losers emerged against 30 gainers. The All Share Index (ASI) and the Market Capitalisation respectively diminished by 1.52% and 1.51% with the former tumbling to 21,861.78 basis points and the latter to N11.393 trillion.
Trade Volume of 1.452 billion shares estimated at N14.918 billion was recorded in 21,828 deals this week compared to the 2.804 billion shares worth N32.559 billion posted in 31,715 deals last week.
On the Activity Chart, the Financial Services sector dominated trade with 1.224 billion shares estimated at N10.590 billion traded in 14,944 deals. Specifically, it contributed 84.32% and 70.99% to the total equity volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates industry came next, trading 50.261 million shares worth N61.457 million in 442 deals. The Consumer Goods followed, trading 47.276 million shares priced at N2.509 billion in 2,225 deals.
As regards Index Movement, all indices depreciated save for the NSE Banking, NSE Insurance, NSE-AFR Bank Value and NSE MERI Value which gained 2.06%, 3.25%, 3.47% and 2.93% in that order. The NSE ASeM Index did not budge.
