Profit taking pares Nigerian stocks capitalisation by N5.9bn

Profit taking in SEPLAT (-3.3%), INTEBREW (-2.1%) and UBN (-4.8%) largely influenced market performance Wednesday as market capitalization dipped by N5.9 billion to N14.7 trillion.

Bourse’s benchmark index, the NSEASI, marginally dropped 0.4% to close at 40,772.26 points while YTD return fell to 6.6 percent.

Similarly, activity level dipped as volume and value traded decreased by 85.6 percent and 60.4 percent to 230.2 million units and N4.3 billion respectively. Top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (67.4m), FIDELITY (14.9m) and FBNH (14.7m) while top traded stocks by value were GUARANTY (N3.0bn), ZENITH (N245.6m) and FBNH (N182.7m).

Performance across sectors was largely bearish as two of five indices closed in the green with three in the red.

The banking and insurance indices were the only gainers on the day appreciating 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent due to price gains in ETI (+2.6%), GUARANTY (+0.6%) and CUSTODIAN (+0.8%).

Contrarily, the Oil & Gas index led losers, down 1.7 percent on the back of profit taking in SEPLAT (-3.3%). The industrial and consumer goods indices followed, falling 1.0 percent and 0.4 percent respectively on account of sell-offs in WAPCO (-2.0%), INTEBREW (-2.1%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.3x from 1.9x recorded Tuesday as 24 stocks advanced while 18 stocks declined.

JAIZ BANK (+10.0%), OANDO (+9.7%) and SKYE (+5.2%) were today’s top performers while UBN (-4.8%), SOVERENINS (-4.3%) and HMARKINS (-3.6%) led laggards.

Despite the drag in the day’s performance, analysts believe bargain hunting opportunities still exist, despite not ruling out the possibility of further profit taking on some stocks in subsequent trading sessions.