The Nigerian stock market has had a tough week as both the All-Share Index and market capitalization fell by 0.46% and 0.19% respectively, thereby closing at 97,745.73 points and N55.50 trillion in losses amounting to N438 billion.
Investors exchanged 3.39 billion shares worth N52.30 billion in 44,814 transactions during this week compared to last week’s 3.56 billion shares valued at N47.22 billion exchanged in 42,871 deals.
In volume terms, the most active subsection is financial services contributing 84.73% of total value and 70.73% of all equity turnover volumes during this period. The most actively traded stocks that contributed significantly to market performance were Fidelity Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Zenith Bank plc.
While there were 40 stock price increases, there were also 40 declines most probably reflecting a steady decline in market performance over time’s passage.
Furthermore, on this same week, trading on Zenith Bank Plc’s rights issue involving 5,232,748,964 ordinary shares commenced.
As stated by Ambrose Omorodion, A financial analyst, recent downturn may have been made possible only by an increase in rates after Monetary Policy Committee meeting amidst continued economic weakness in Nigeria.
Investors are skeptical about their move due to high inflation and economic activities in the country. The Nigeria Capital Market is expressing a gradual decline and recovery is quite slow.