The reign of the bears continued unabated on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), even as virtually all the highly capitalised stocks joined the league of losers, causing investors’ wealth to dip by N142billion in three trading days. 

Specifically, the market capitalisation of listed equities lost N142billion or 1.1 per cent from N13.637trillion at which it opened for transactions on Monday to N13.495trillion yesterday.

Also, the All-share index plunged by 394.68 points from 37,647.93 to 37,253.25.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said: “We opine that the current bearish sentiment in the market is driven by some institutional investors reducing their positions in bellwethers stocks.

Nevertheless, we believe an upturn in performance in the near term will be buoyed by bulk bargain hunting in some fundamentally sound stocks.”

Also, the Chief Research Officer at Investdata Consulting Limited, Ambrose Omodion, said investors are currently trading with caution because of fear of political risk, which he blamed for the apathy and low investors’ confidence in the market

He added that foreign investors that play dominant role have resorted to massive selloff of shares in the market.

A breakdown of activities showed that yesterday’s decline was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Julius Berger, International Breweries, Dangote Cement, Lafarge Africa, and Flourmill.

Market breadth closed negative, with 17 gainers versus 25 losers. Custodian and Allied Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, to close at N6.27 per share. McNichols gained 9.88 per cent to close at 89 kobo.

Mobil Nigeria appreciated by 9.39 per cent to close at N168.50 per share.

Equity Assurance appreciated by 9.09 per cent to close at 24 kobo, while Wapic Insurance gained 6.67 per cent to close at 48 kobo per share.

On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent, to close at N27, while Thomas Wyatt Nigeria followed with a loss of 8.82 per cent to close at 31 kobo, per share.