NSE LIVE! Equities falter as profit-taking shaves N13bn

After three successive bullish trading sessions that saw equities net N712 billion in capital gains, investors in Nigerian equities turned around on Thursday to monetise the recent capital gains, pressurising the market to its first negative closing this week.

A scramble to take profits coloured the overall market situation at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, with the market closing with average day-on-day decline of 0.08 per cent, equivalent to a net capital loss of N13 billion.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks share prices at the Exchange (NSE), dropped from its opening index of 44,885.24 points to close at 44,848.74 points. Aggregate market capitalisation of all quoted equities also declined from its opening value of N16.080 trillion to close at N16.067 trillion. With this, the average year-to-date return slipped to 17.27 per cent.

With 31 decliners to 28 advancers, sectoral indices showed widespread profit-taking transactions. Most sectoral indices closed negative with the NSE Industrial Goods Index leading with a drop of 1.2 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dipped by 1.1 per cent while NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 0.1 per cent. Meanwhile, the NSE Insurance Index rose by 2.0 per cent while the NSE Banking Index recorded a gain of 0.3 per cent.

Nigerian Breweries-the second most capitalised company at the Exchange, led the decliners with a drop of N4.05 to close at N142. Presco followed with a loss of N3.61 to close at N68.69. Unilever Nigeria dropped by N2.02 to close at N45. Lafarge Africa lost N2.01 to close at N51.99. Nascon Allied Industries dropped by N1.52 to close at N19.48. Stanbic IBTC Holdings dipped by N1.19 to close at N45.01. PZ Cussons Nigeria lost N1.15 to close at N21.94 while GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria dropped by N1.10 to close at N21.94 per share.

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The momentum of activities however increased as investors continued to show preference for low-priced stocks. Total turnover stood at 1.34 billion shares valued at N10.73 billion in 11,355 deals. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria was the most active stock with a turnover of 211.31 million shares valued at N535.61 million. Wema Bank followed with 157.85 million shares valued at N163.76 million while FCMB Group recorded a turnover of 143.57 million shares worth N516.83 million.

On the positive side, Nigeria’s highest-priced stock, Nestle Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N20 to close at N1,500 per share. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria followed with a gain of N1.64 to close at N17.78. FBN Holdings added 99 kobo to close at N14.75 per share. Guaranty Trust Bank added 96 kobo to close at N52.11. Guinness Nigeria rose by 55 kobo to close at N120.25 while Cadbury Nigeria chalked up 54 kobo to close at N15.85 per share.

“As expected, investors booked profit on previous advancers, notwithstanding; we expect the market to close the week positive,” Afrinvest Securities-a Lagos-based dealer at the NSE stated.

 

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