Investors in the Nigerian equities market suffered significant losses on Tuesday as the stock market reversed gains from the previous session, with market capitalisation declining by N599 billion.
The downturn, driven by sustained selloffs across multiple counters, saw the All-Share Index drop by 927.70 points or 0.38 per cent, closing at 244,802.83 from 245,730.53 recorded at the previous close.
Market capitalisation settled at N158.015 trillion, compared with N158.614 trillion at the opening of trading.
The negative performance was largely attributed to profit-taking in 40 declining equities, including Multiverse Mining, Livingtrust Mortgage Bank, Mc Nicholas, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria, and Eterna—all of which featured prominently among the losers.
Multiverse Mining and Livingtrust Mortgage Bank led the losers’ chart, each shedding 10 per cent to close at N22.95 and N3.42 per share, respectively. Mc Nicholas declined by 9.92 per cent to N5.45, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria fell by 9.87 per cent to N3.56, while Eterna depreciated by 9.09 per cent to settle at N33 per share.
Consequently, the year-to-date return moderated to 57.32 per cent.
Market breadth closed negative, with 40 losers against 13 gainers.
On the upside, AVA Capital topped the gainers’ chart with a 9.94 per cent appreciation, closing at N9.95. Nigeria Real Estate Investment Trust followed with a 9.71 per cent gain to finish at N113, while Livestock Feeds advanced by 9.49 per cent to N8.65 per share. Neimeth International Pharmaceutical and AIICO Insurance also recorded gains of 8.43 per cent and 3.47 per cent, closing at N9 and N4.18, respectively.
Despite the bearish close, trading activity improved significantly, with total volume rising by 69.25 per cent to 1.56 billion shares valued at N28.73 billion, exchanged in 54,160 deals.
Japaul Gold dominated the volume chart with 904.42 million shares—representing 57.89 per cent of the day’s total turnover—while MTN Nigeria recorded the highest value of trades at N3.25 billion, accounting for 11.31 per cent of the day’s total transaction value.