Banking stocks on the Nigerian Exchange Limited maintained their positive trend as the local bourse shed N139bn on the first trading day after the Christmas holiday.
The All-Share Index and the market capitalisation dipped by 0.34 per cent to 73,768.64 and N40.367tn respectively, consequently, the year-to-date gain of the ASI slipped to 43.94 per cent.
However, the banking index on the NGX marginally increased to 889.15 on Wednesday from 887.60 on Friday.
A closer look at the performance of the banking stocks showed that FCMB Group rose by 4.79 per cent, Fidelity Bank, 0.95 per cent, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, 0.50 per cent, and Jaiz Bank Plc, 8.75 per cent. Unity Bank Plc shares appreciated by 2.50 per cent while Zenith Bank gained 0.26 per cent and Access Holdings Plc gained 0.22 per cent.
On the flip side, Stanbic IBTC Holdings’ share value dipped by 6.01 per cent, Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc shed 1.11 per cent, FBN Holdings Plc lost 1.04 per cent and United Bank for Africa also shed 0.39 per cent. Both Ecobank Transnational Incorporated and Wema Bank closed flat.
Market breadth which is the measure of investors’ sentiment, was positive resulting in 40 gainers and 21 losers.
During trading, sell-offs were observed in stocks such as UAC Nigeria, DEAPCap, Caverton, Royal Exchange and Tantalizer, as their respective share prices dropped by 10 per cent, 7.25 per cent, 6.59 per cent, 6.25 per cent and 6.12 per cent.
Trading activity improved as the total deals and traded volume increased by 40.55 per cent and 2.27 per cent to 8,901 trades and 432.91 million units, whilst the traded value declined by 21.99 per cent to N12.94bn.
Sector-wise, investor sentiment was positive. The Insurance index led gainers with a 3.06 per cent increase, followed by the Oil/Gas and Banking indexes with a gain of 0.24 per cent and 0.17 per cent respectively.
However, the Consumer and Industrial Goods sectors experienced declines of 0.15 per cent and 1.10 per cent due to sell-offs.