Profit-taking heightens as market plunges by N63b

Rising profit-taking impact negatively on transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), occasioned by losses suffered by some bellwethers, causing market capitalisation to depreciate further by N63 billion.

Specifically, at the close of trading yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 141.08 absolute points, representing a dip of 0.45 per cent to close at 30,928.29 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation shed N63 billion to close at N13.622 trillion.

Monday’s performance was influenced by price depreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks, among which were, Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Julius Berger, NASCON Allied Industries, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited, said: “In line with our expectation, we experienced some sell-offs in yesterday’s trading session. Our outlook remains bearish in the near term though we do not rule out the possibility of bargain hunting in fundamentally sound stocks.”

Market breadth remained negative with 15 gainers against 28 losers. Champion Breweries recorded the highest price gain of 9.90 per cent to close at N1.11, while University Press followed with a gain of 9.44 per cent to close at N1.97, per share.

Academy Press rose by eight per cent to close at 27 kobo, while Sterling Bank and Jaiz Bank each gained 4.35 per cent to close at N2.40 and 48 kobo, per share.

On the other hand, GlaxoSmithKline led the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at N7.65, per share. ETI followed with 9.87 per cent to close at N10.05, while Julius Berger fell 9.84 per cent to close at N19.70, per share.

Oando shed 9.52 per cent to close at N3.80, while Vitafoam Nigeria lost 9.41 per cent to close at N3.85, per share.

Meanwhile, the total volume traded rose by 15.5 per cent to 246.09 million units, valued at N2.82 billion, exchanged in 3,850 deals. FCMB Group traded with 70.56 million shares valued at N112.98 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 33.99 million shares worth N1.07 billion, while Oando traded 27.15 million shares valued at N103.27 billion.

UAC of Nigeria (UACN) traded 24.33 million shares at N157.16 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 8.84 million shares worth N178.54 million.