The NGX equity market capitalization dropped by N7.893 billion on Monday, May 19. The market opened at N68.953 trillion but closed at N68.945 trillion.
Also, the NGX All-Share Index (NGX-ASI) inched marginally lower by 0.01 per cent to close at 109,697.83 points, driven by sell-offs in tier-1 banking names such as ACCESSCORP (-2.13%), FIDELITYBK (-3.85%), UBA (-1.15%), and ZENITHBANK (-0.83%).
“Consequently, investors lost N7.893 billion in value as the total market capitalisation settled at N68.945 trillion. This slight downturn comes ahead of Tuesday’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, reflecting investor caution around a hold.
However, out of the five key sector indices tracked, four closed positive—highlighting selective sector rotation by investors. The Banking Index was the sole laggard, declining by 0.74 per cent, a move likely tied to rising rate sensitivity and funding cost concerns.
In contrast, Consumer Goods led gainers with a 1.55 per cent increase, bolstered by Tantalizers and others. Insurance (+0.56%), Industrial Goods (+0.17%), and Oil & Gas (+0.19%) posted mild gains, indicating broad-based but shallow bullish sentiment.
Market activity surged significantly, despite the lackluster headline index move. Volume traded increased by 12.58 per cent to 486.09 million units, while value traded jumped 32.36 per cent to N11.38 billion. Even more striking was the 51.73 per cent rise in number of trades, suggesting heightened participation, especially by institutional and retail investors repositioning ahead of macro events. Notably, ACCESSCORP led volume with 9.28 per cent of total trades, while GTCO topped value traded, accounting for N2.20 billion.
Despite the marginal dip in the index, internal market dynamics remained constructive. The market breadth stood strong at 2.00x, confirming more advancing than declining volume.
While both the NSI and market capitalization dipped slightly by 0.14%, trading activity surged dramatically — volume traded soared by over 16,000% and value traded jumped by 1,264%, suggesting a large institutional or block trade occurred, even though only 9 deals were executed (down 75%). This indicates concentrated market participation with outsized transactions despite overall market bearishness.
On the price movement front, AG Mortgage Bank Plc led gainers with a 7.94% increase, possibly reflecting investor confidence or positive internal developments. In contrast, Geo-Fluids Plc dropped sharply by -9.96%, indicating bearish pressure or unfavorable sentiment, while FrieslandCampina WAMCO also slipped by -2.50%, suggesting weak demand or profit-taking in defensive stocks.
