Investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) staked N95.06 billion on 7.72 billion shares in 120.949 deals in April.
Statistics from the NSE released on Wednesday indicated that this was against the 7.69 billion shares worth N76 billion traded in 111,485 deals in March.
The All-Shares Index closed lower at 33,440.57, losing 95.68 points or 0.29 per cent from the 33,536.25 achieved in March.
Also, the market capitalisation lost N42 billion to close at N10.69 trillion against the N10.73 trillion posted in March.
Drop in the capital market indices is as a result of price losses by some blue chips.
The index measures the growth of the bourse, while the market capitalisation captures the daily worth of all listed securities.
Some stakeholders attributed the drop in the indicators to unimpressive 2012 results of some major companies.
Mr David Adonri, the Chief Executive Officer, Lambeth Trust & Investment Co. Ltd., said that equities could not rally in April due to mixed corporate results.
“Spectacular results from companies like Okomu Oil, Skye Bank, Fidelity Bank, Zenith Bank and GTBank tended to take the market up.
“But the poor returns from Diamond Bank, FCMB and a few others watered down any hope of a rally,” Adonri said.
Andonri expressed optimism that the market might experience impressive growth in May if corporate earnings continued to show positive growth.
Malam Garba Kurfi, the Managing Director, APT Securities and Funds Ltd., said that the market performed very well in April when compared with other frontier markets.
Kurfi called for listing of more companies on the bourse to dilute the dominance of few major players in the capital market.
Mr Emma Ndu, a stockbroker with Mega Securities Ltd., advised that market regulators should pursue strategies targeted at improving liquidity for growth sustainability.
Ndu said that investors’ confidence had increased tremendously after the capital market crash in 2008.
He urged investors to invest in equities with strong fundamentals.
