The market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange Limited depreciated for the first time in the New Year.
At the close of trading on Wednesday, the eight-day rally in the market was halted as the market cap dipped by about N638bn to close at N44.885tn. This is coming a day after the market cap crossed the N45tn milestone.
Although the benchmark index of the exchange, the All-Share Index remained above 80,000 points, it shed 1,167.46 points or 1.40 per cent to close at 82,024.38 on Wednesday.
Impacted by the depreciation were banking stocks, most of which suffered a loss except for Jaiz Bank which defied the trend to appreciate by 5.40 per cent to N2.93, and Stanbic IBTC Holdings which closed flat.
Meanwhile, the market capitalisation of Access Holdings Plc and First Bank of Nigeria Holdings dropped below N1tn, a day after the lenders crossed the milestone. They closed the market with a capitalisation of N989bn and N926bn, respectively.
The downturn in the equity market comes a day after the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, questioned some banks’ Managing Directors over a fraud that was uncovered at the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.
The major drivers of the day’s market were the stocks of indigenous conglomerate, Transnational Corporation Plc, AccessCorp, United Bank for Africa, Jaiz Bank, and Zenith Bank.
Market Breadth which is the measure of investors’ sentiment was negative resulting in 13 gainers and 61 losers.
