Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) last week was bearish as the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.53 per cent. 

According to data from the local bourse, the benchmark index depreciated by 0.53 per cent from 51,829.67 points recorded as of the end of last week to close the week at 51,557.41 index points, while the market capitalization followed suit to close at N27.80 trillion as against an opening of N27.94 trillion.

Investors, therefore, lost N139 billion from off their investment during the five-day trading activities.

Particularly, sell-offs in International Breweries, Union Bank of Nigeria, FBN Holdings, FCMB Group and NASCON led the weekly loss as their respective shares value depreciated by 14.3 per cent, 9.8 per cent, 8.6 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 6.4 per cent.

This brought the month-to-date performance of the Nigerian stock market to 0.50 per cent and a year-to-date gain of 20.70 per cent as at the end of Friday trading session.

Sectoral performance for he week under review was largely bearish, following losses in the Insurance, Banking, Consumer Goods, and Oil and Gas indices, while the Industrial Goods index closed flat.

Likewise, activity levels were weaker than the prior week, as trading volume and value declined by 39.0 per cent Week-on-Week (WoW) and 57.7 per cent WoW, respectively.

A total of 822.40 million shares valued at N10.37 billion were traded during the week across 20,643 deals on the floor of the Exchange. This is lower than the 1.35 billion units of shares valued at N24.49 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 22,155 deals.

Similar to the previous week, the Financial Services Industry led the activity chart in terms of volume of shares traded with 491.27 million shares valued at N4.50 billion traded in 9,961 deals; hereby contributing 59.74 per cent and 43.40 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Conglomerates Industry followed with 81.70 million shares worth N218.29 million in 605 deals, while the Consumer Goods Industry, stood in third place with a turnover of 55.05 million shares worth N855.32 million in 3,093 deals.

Trading in the top three equities by volume namely Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Transnational Corporation accounted for 244.03 million shares worth N2.68 billion in 3,732 deals, contributing 29.67 per cent and 25.86 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.