NSE LIVE! Equities slow down amidst profit-taking

After raking in N326 billion in two successive trading sessions, Nigerian equities slowed down yesterday as investors sought to lock in capital gains and rebalance their portfolios. Quoted equities had rallied N92 billion last Friday and added another N234 billion on Monday.
The All Share Index (ASI)-the composite value-based index that tracks prices of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), dropped by 0.19 per cent from 30,369.97 points to close at 30,311.77 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also dropped from N10.438 trillion to close at N10.418 trillion, representing a loss of N20 billion.
Average year-to-date return inched up to -12.54 per cent. With 29 losers against 19 gainers, the decline yesterday was due to preponderance of losers as well as large number of highly capitalised stocks among the losers.
Sectoral analysis showed mixed performance across the sectors. The NSE Insurance Index rose by 3.8 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index trailed with a gain of 0.4 per cent. However, The NSE Banking Index fell by 0.9 per cent while the NSE Oil & Gas Index and NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 0.1 per cent each.

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“Whilst today’s bearish close was majorly due to profit-taking, we anticipate investors to trade cautiously in the sessions ahead as the market awaits the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decision on interest rate on Thursday,” Afrinvest Securities stated.
Guinness Nigeria, which had led the rally in the past trading session, topped the losers’ list with a drop of N5.32 to close at N162.45. PZ Cussons Nigeria followed with a loss of N1.34 to close at N26.65 while Forte Oil dropped by N1.11 to close at N227.79 per share. Stanbic IBTC Holdings dropped by 79 kobo to close at N22.11. Guaranty Trust Bank declined by 60 kobo to close at N23.50. UAC of Nigeria lost 50 kobo to close at N31.50 while Vanleer declined by 49 kobo to close at N9.37 per share.
On the other hand, Unilever Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N1.80 to close at N45.80. Cadbury Nigeria followed with addition of N1.02 to close at N22.93. Lafarge Africa rose by n1 to N99 while Flour Mills of Nigeria and Caverton Offshore Support Group added 60 kobo and 29 kobo to close at N22.60 and N3.37 respectively.
Market turnover was also mixed as aggregate volume rose by 62.5 per cent to 413.9 million shares while aggregate value declined by 38.6 per cent to N2.4 billion. African Alliance was the most active stock with a turnover of 200 million shares valued at N100 million. It was followed by Access Bank which recorded a turnover of 22.08 million shares valued at N112.02 million while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated recorded a turnover of 20.07 million shares worth N380.4 million.

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