…investors trade N38 billion in cautious session
FRI OCT 09 2026-theGBJournal| The Nigerian stock market extended its losing streak to seven consecutive sessions Thursday, as sustained profit-taking in heavyweight stocks dragged the benchmark index down by 0.8%, wiping off billions off market value despite a surge in trading activity.
The All-Share Index fell to 248,042.50 points, pressured by steep losses in Aradel Holdings (-10.0%), Fidelity Bank (-5.0%), MTN Nigeria (-3.5%) and Stanbic IBTC (-2.4%).
The slide pushed the market’s month-to-date return deeper into negative territory at -1.3%, although its year-to-date gain remained strong at 59.4%.
Despite the sell-off, investors ramped up activity, trading 492.23 million shares worth N38.02 billion in 38,711 deals.
Zenith Bank led trading by volume with 47.80 million units, while Presco topped the value chart with transactions worth N7.46 billion.
Market sentiment remained bearish, with 31 stocks closing lower against 26 gainers.
Eterna and Aradel Holdings recorded the steepest losses at 10% each, while E-Tranzact (+10.0%) and Livestock Feeds (+9.1%) led the gainers.
Sectoral performance was largely negative, with the Oil and Gas index falling 3.9%, Insurance shedding 0.4% and Banking declining 0.2%.
Consumer Goods bucked the trend with a marginal 0.1% gain, while Industrial Goods closed flat.
The NASD OTC market also closed Thursday’s session on a negative note, as the NASD Security Index (NSI) declined by 0.16% to 4,388.41 points. Market capitalisation also fell by 0.16% to N2.63 trillion, while the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return moderated to 23.84%, from 24.04% in the previous session.
Market activity weakened significantly, as total volume traded declined by 72.05% to 315,883 units, while total value traded fell by 87.03% to N20.14 million.
However, the number of trades increased by 25.00% to 35 trades.
SDMRS led the gainers’ chart, advancing by 10.00%, while SDFOODCPT topped the losers’ table, shedding 6.77%.
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