The bears continued to ravage the Nigerian equities market on Wednesday, as investors lost N81 billion at the close of the day’s trading.
This followed the dip in the share prices of stocks Ecobank Transnational Inc (ETI), International Breweries and Ikeja Hotel Plc (IKEJA HOTEL) amongst others, on the trading floor.
After five hours of trading at the capital market, the equity capitalisation crashed to N66.4 trillion from N66.5 trillion posted by the bourse on Tuesday.
The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) decreased to 105,931.18 points from 106,116.18 points recorded the previous day.
The market breadth was positive as 38 stocks advanced, 24 stocks declined, and 62 stocks remained unchanged in 17,519 deals.
Vitafoam Nigeria, University Press and Livestock Feeds led other gainers with 10%, 10% and 9.97% growth each in prices to close at N52.80, N3.74 and N8.49 from the previous N48.00, N3.40 and N7.72 per share.
Ecobank Transnational Inc., International Breweries and Ikeja Hotel Plc led other price decliners with 10%, 10% and 9.89% dip in share prices to close at N28.80, N7.05 and N0.59 from the previous N8.55, N7.80 and N0.65 per share.
On the volume index, United Bank for Africa (UBA) led trading with 38 million shares in 878 deals, followed by Wema Bank Plc, which traded 26 million shares in 455 deals.
Fidelity Bank Plc traded 25 million shares in 561 deals.
On the value index, MTN Nigeria traded stocks worth N3.6 billion in 721 deals, followed by UBA, which traded equities worth N1.3 billion in 878 deals.
Zenith Bank Plc traded shares valued at N992 million in 1, 015 deals.