The Nigerian equities market extended its bearish run on Thursday, with the NGX All-Share Index (NGX-ASI) declining by 0.30% to close at 240,037.80 points, marking its eighth consecutive session of losses. The latest decline pushed the market’s weekly loss to 1.07%, as continued selling pressure in ARADEL weighed on the market. Market capitalisation also declined by 0.28% to NGN154.98 trillion, although the smaller percentage decline relative to the NGX-ASI reflected the impact of the newly listed shares of Veritas Kapital Assurance.

Market breadth remained weak, closing at 0.48x, with 14 gainers against 29 decliners, while the UD ratio stood at 0.02x, highlighting the significant imbalance between advancing and declining volumes. This was largely influenced by the high volume traded in FTGINSURE, which declined by 9.76% to NGN1.85 and accounted for 88.98% of total value traded in today’s session. Trading activity was exceptionally high in volume terms, with 2.87 billion shares changing hands, representing a 140.65% increase from the previous session. However, turnover declined by 10.06% to NGN33.98 billion, while the number of deals edged up by 0.52% to 34,669.