The market’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 2023 general election cases has resulted in a N67 billion decline in the market capitalization of the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
According to The Punch, this was the local stock exchange’s second day in a row with negative trading.
Depreciation in the share values of MTN Nigeria (-0.40 percent), Flour Mills (-3.23 percent), Stanbic IBTC (3.21 percent), Computer Warehouse Group (-9.94 percent), Fidelity Bank (-1.82 percent), and 24 other companies contributed to the market cap’s decline.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’s ruling, which maintained President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the election conducted in February 2023, was upheld by the Supreme Court.
The All-Share index fell by -0.18% as opposed to -0.02% the day before. The market capitalization concluded at N36.856 trillion, while the index closed the day at 67,084.95 points.
As 29 stocks declined against 12 gains, the market breadth, a gauge of investor mood, decreased to 0.41x from its previous value of 1.28x.
The number of shares traded in 5,205 trades saw a decrease in transaction volume from 329.66 million to 267.65 million units valued at N5.1bn. 117 stocks changed hands during the day’s trading session.
Negative sentiment pervaded all monitored sectoral boards, with two out of five sectors ending in the red, two remaining muted, and only one sector showing increases.
The biggest losses were seen in the Banking and Insurance indices, which fell by 0.33 and 1.82 percent, respectively, as a result of sell-offs in Zenith Bank, GTCO, Stanbic, Prestige, and Cornerstone Insurance.
But thanks to Nestle and Transcorp, the consumer goods sector grew by 0.12%, while the oil and gas and industrial goods indices saw weak performances.
At the end of Thursday’s trading, some of the top gainers were McNichols, whose shares increased by 8.93% to close at N0.61, Oando, whose shares increased by 4.07% to close at N8.95, UAC Nigeria, whose shares increased by 6.09% to close at N12.20, Chams, whose shares increased by 3.65% to close at N1.99, Nestle, whose shares increased by 2.94% to close at N1,050, and Transcorp, which gained 2.75 percent to close at N6.35 per unit.
The equities of Fidelity, Chams, Nestle, AccessCorp, UBA, and Stanbic led the day’s trading in terms of volume and value.
