Trading on the floor of Nigerian Exchange closed the month of August on a positive note, posting a gain of N310 billion despite renewed bearish pressure that hit the market in the fourth week of the month.
The NGX All-Share Index, which opened in August at 139,863.52 points and closed at 140,295.49 points, recording a total gain of 431.97 basis points.
Also, the market capitalization of listed equities which opened the month with N88.424 trillion, upped by N310 billion to the close the month at N88.7734 trillion, representing a 0.35 per cent gain.
Although the month of July was the strongest month so far this year, the positive performance of the month was carried into the first half of August, pushing the index firmly into the green and driving it to highs above 146,000 points, recording more than 5,000 points in just two weeks of the month.
But sentiment began to shift in the third week as oil and gas heavyweights and selected mid-cap stocks began to move in the negative trajectory.
The downturn deepened further in the fourth week, with the index dropping by 3,500 points to 141,004.1, largely driven by weakness in big cement stocks and other large caps.
By the final trading week, which ended on August 29th, the index shed another 708 points, impacting negatively on the earlier rally.
Although the market sentiment remained weak at the end of the month due to persistent sell off pressure from investors seeking to rebalance their portfolio amid uncertain market condition, with early strong gains in the first two weeks of the month, the index recorded a modest gain of 0.31 per cent