SAT MARCH 08 2025-theGBJournal| Nigerian equities market closed lower on Friday, rounding off a very volatile week that reflects bearish sentiment and profit taking.
Investors were also reacting to delays in bank and insurance earnings filings and dividend announcements while also monitoring yield movement in the fixed income market.
The benchmark index, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) closed 1.2% w/w to 106,533.26 points, dragging market cap down to N66.72 trillion. The year-to-date return moderated to +3.5%.
All other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX AseM and NGX Commodity which appreciated by 0.04% and 0.19% respectively.
Furthermore, trading activity weakened, as the total volume and value declined by 1.9% w/w and 8.0% w/w, respectively.
Also, sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Banking (-2.9%), Insurance (-2.3%), Consumer Goods (-1.7%), and Oil & Gas (-0.2%) indices all closed lower, while the Industrial Goods index remained flat.
Trading in the top three equities namely Zenith Bank Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 451.558 million shares worth N13.583 billion in 10,055 deals, contributing 24.84% and 28.76% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Overall, Thirty equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than twenty-seven equities in the previous week.
Fifty-eight equities gained in price, lower than sixty in the previous week, while sixty-two equities remained unchanged, lower than sixty-three recorded in the previous week.
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