Stock Market Declines by 1.52% Last Week

• Stock Market Declines by 1.52% Last Week

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) extended bearish trend last week as the lockdowns and the number of confirmed coronavirus cases surged.

The NSE All-Share Index declined by 1.52 percent or 336.65 basis points from 22,198.43 bps recorded a week ago to close at 21,861.78 on Friday. The year-to-date decline extended to 18.55 percent while 16.61 percent of the total decline came in March amid coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria.

The total number of infected persons rose to 97 on Saturday, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. This was after the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said the nation will plunge into an economic recession if the pandemic lasted for 6 months or a year.

The market capitalisation of the listed equities dipped by 1.51 percent to N11.393 trillion last week.

Total shares of 1.452 billion valued at N14.918 billion were exchanged in 21,828 deals during the week, down from 2.804 billion shares worth N32.559 billion that were traded in 31,715 deals.

Accordingly, the financial services industry led the activity chart with 1.224 billion shares worth N1.590 billion traded in 14,944 transactions. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 50.261 million shares worth N61.457 million in 442 deals. While the Consumer Goods industry came third with a total turnover of 47.276 million shares valued at N2.509 billion in 2,225 deals.

Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc led the most traded equities by volume, accounting for a combined 713.795 million shares worth N8.610 billion in 8,608 deals.