NSE LIVE! Equities stumble on profit-taking

After rallying N267 billion in the previous trading week, Nigerian equities reopened on Monday to a strong profit-taking trend as investors sought to lock in profit.

With 27 decliners to 18 advancers, the market situation was a buyer’s market on Monday, forcing most transactions to close at lower prices.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) declined from its opening value of N13.166 trillion to close at N13.081 trillion, representing a loss of N85 billion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common index that tracks prices at the Exchange, dropped from its opening index of 38,198.60 points to close at 37,950.96 points, representing a day-on-day decline of 0.65 per cent. The profit-taking depressed the average year-to-date return to 41.21 per cent.

Most sectoral indices closed in the red. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 1.1 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index dropped by 0.4 per cent while the NSE Banking Index and NSE Oil & Gas Index depreciated by 0.3 per cent each. Meanwhile, the NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 0.2 per cent.

Read also: NSE ROUNDUP! Nigerian, African equities buck global downtrend

Total Nigeria led the decliners with a loss of N12.45 to close at N236.55. Dangote Cement-the most capitalized stock at the Exchange, declined by N5 to close at N235. Guinness Nigeria dropped by N1.50 to close at N90. Flour Mills of Nigeria dipped by N1.40 to close at N27.60. CAP dropped by 59 kobo to close at N34.40 per share. United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Oando lost 28 kobo to close at N9.60 and N7.30 respectively while Zenith Bank declined by 25 kobo to close at N23.50.

On the upside, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the advancers with a gain of N9.90 to close at N480. Nigerian Breweries rose by N2 to close at N193. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated added 42 kobo to close at N18. Unilever Nigeria rose by 25 kobo to close at N45.50. Union Bank of Nigeria chalked up 23 kobo to close at N6 per share. Dangote Flour Mills rose by 21 kobo to close at N6.59 while Fidson Healthcare appreciated by 14 kobo to close at N3.13 per share.

Total turnover stood at 316.12 million shares valued at N4.22 billion in 4,113 deals. Banking stocks dominated the activities chart. Access Bank was the most active stock with 169.6 million shares valued at N1.77 billion. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with a turnover of 26.17 million shares worth N1.03 billion while FBN Holdings placed third with 17.79 million shares valued at N110.14 million.

“As investors await earnings result from Tier – 1 banking stocks that are yet to publish, we expect the market to trade sideways. However, we advise investors to trade cautiously as we do not rule out the possibility of some profit -taking in tomorrow (Tuesday)’s trading session,” Afrinvest Securities-a Lagos-based dealer at the Exchange, stated.

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