The equity market recorded a loss of N276 billion at the start of the week in the red

Investors in the Nigerian equity market lost N276 billion at the close of trading on Monday.

This follows the fall in the prices of shares such as Secure Electronics, May and Baker and Legend Internet, among others, on the stock exchange floor.

The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) fell to 200,484.43 points from 200,913.06 points on the previous trading day.

After five hours of trading on the capital market, equity capitalization fell to N128.6 trillion from N128.8 trillion recorded by the exchange on Friday.

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Market breadth was negative, with 33 stocks rising, 36 declining, and 79 unchanged in 60,311 transactions.

A total of 593,250,752 shares were traded worth N25.6 billion.

Austin Laz, Zichis and Trans-Nationwide Express led the gainers chart, with share price growth of 9.99%, 9.93% and 9.65% respectively, closing at N4.41, N15.16 and N2.84 per share, up from N4.01, N13.79 and N2.59 per share.

Secure Electronics, May and Baker and Legend Internet led other price decliners with price drops of 10%, 9.42% and 8.67% respectively to close at N1.17, N38.00 and N6.85 per share, down from the previous N1.30, N41.95 and N7.50 per share.

On the volume index, Access Holding led trading with 86 million shares in 2,314 transactions, followed by First Hold Co, which traded 84 million shares in 670 transactions.

Secure Electronics traded 31 million shares in 383 transactions.

On the value index, First HoldCo traded shares worth N4.2 billion in 670 transactions, followed by Zenith Bank, which traded equities worth N2.6 billion in 3,468 transactions.

Nestle traded shares worth N2.2 billion in 253 transactions.

By Babajide Okeowo