Nigerian Exchange Records First Weekly Decline Since July
Trading activities on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) wrapped up last week on a bearish note, recording the first decline since July.
The All-Share Index fell by 0.77%, closing at 144,628.20 points compared to 145,754.91 points in the previous week.
Market capitalisation also took a hit, dropping by ₦713 billion to settle at ₦91.502 trillion, down from ₦92.215 trillion a week earlier. Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return eased to 40.52%.
Sector performance was largely negative, with only the NGX Insurance Index (+8.21%), NGX AFR Div. Yield Index (+1.57%) and NGX Growth Index (+9.50%) are recording gains.
Investors exchanged 5.39 billion shares valued at ₦107.8 billion across 134,389 transactions during the week. Despite the downturn, market breadth closed positive as 90 equities appreciated, while 16 recorded losses.
Mutual Benefits Assurance emerged as the top gainer, climbing 31.85% to ₦3.85 from ₦2.92. Other major gainers included TRIPPLEG (+30.23%), Sunu Assurance (+23.80%), MECURE (+20.50%), and DEAPCAP (+19.26%). Rounding up the top ten were Linkage Assurance (+17.96%), Champion Breweries (+17.63%), Guinea Insurance (+17.32%), Julius Berger (+17.14%), and MANSARD (+14.41%).
On the losers’ chart, UPDC led with a 17.72% decline, dropping to ₦6.50 from ₦7.90. Living Trust Insurance (-16.00%), Berger Paints (-14.67%), VFD Group (-11.19%), and Unilever (-10.29%) also posted significant declines. Other top laggards were Sterling Bank (-10.18%), HMCALL (-9.09%), NGX Group (-8.66%), Honeywell Flour (-8.47%), and ABC Transport (-8.00%).
