Profit taking pares Nigerian equities market cap by N42.6bn as index dips 0.34%

Nigerian stocks Wednesday lost N42.6 billion in market capitalization as profit taking in bellwether counters dragged benchmark index down by 0.34 percent to settle at 36,652.82 points, just as year-to-date gain moderated to 36.4%.

Losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%), UBA (-1.7%) and STANBIC (-2.3%) were the major drags to Wednesday’sperformance.

Market activity level worsened as volume and value traded shrank 4.7 percent and 43.6 percent to 336.4 million units and N1.8 billion respectively.

Sector performance was mixed as three of five indices closed higher.  The insurance index (+2.4%) led gainers on the back of renewed interest in MANSARD (+10.0%) and LINKASSURE (+6.7%) while the oil & gas index followed suit, advancing 0.6 percent on account of price appreciation in SEPLAT (+1.6%).

Similarly, the industrial goods index added 0.2 percent following gains in CCNN (+9.2%). In contrast, price depreciation in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%) dragged the Consumer Goods index 1.1% lower while the Banking index lost 0.2% on the back of losses in UBA (-1.7%) and STANBIC (-2.3%).

Investor sentiment stayed positive as market breadth remained unchanged from 1.1x recorded yesterday, as 19 stocks advanced against 18 decliners.

The best performing stocks were MANSARD (+10.0%), CCNN (+9.2%) and LINKASSURE (+6.7%) while VITAFOAM (-5.0%), LAWUNION (-4.7%) and UPL (-4.7%) were the worst performing stocks.