Protest: Equities market sees highest daily loss in Nigeria’s protest week

Nigeria’s stock market had a negative start to the new month on Thursday, marking the largest daily fall of the protest week.

At the end of the trading session, the market fell by 0.42 percent for the fourth day in a row.

 In keeping with their planned 10-day protest against hunger and poor governance, irate Nigerian youths took to the streets on Thursday, August 1, in the country’s major cities.

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“Due to the proposed nationwide protest tomorrow (ie Thursday), this is to inform you that all our offices in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja will be closed on Thursday August 1, 2024.

“We will closely monitor the situation and provide further communication depending on the developments of the protest,” Lagos-based Meristem research told its clients ahead of Thursday’s trading.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index and equities market capitalisation decreased to 97,359.76 points and N55.278 trillion respectively as against preceding trading day’s highs of 97,774.22 points and N55.513trillion.

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Shares of Oando Plc decreased most from N25 to N23, losing N2 or 8 percent while Dangote Sugar Refinery decreased from preceding day’s high of N37.15 to N34.30, losing N2.85 or 7.67 percent.

“Barring a significant shift in the local capital markets environment that would benefit the equity space, we anticipate a flat to negative tilt in market sentiment on the back of this,” Vetiva Research analysts said ahead of Thursday’s trading.

Shares of Fidelity Bank, UBA, Zenith Bank, Oando and Access Holdings were actively traded as investors in 6,821 deals exchanged 565,116,303 shares worth N8.530billion.