NSE LIVE! Profit-taking halts equities’ rally

After three consecutive positive trading sessions, Nigerian equities simmered on Thursday as investors sought to
take profits on several stocks.

The main indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed a cautious but tight market situation with the overall market capitalisation declining by N5 billion.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped from its opening value of N9.423 trillion to close at N9.418 trillion.

The main index that tracks prices at the Exchange, the All Share Index (ASI), also slipped simultaneously from 27,437.25 points to close at 27,420.99 points.

The market performance was driven by profit-taking transactions as highly capitalised stocks in the downstream oil, consumer goods and banking sectors that had led the rallies in recent days came under strong selling pressure.

There were 18 losers against 16 gainers. Guinness Nigeria led the losers with a loss of N3.51 to close at N89.99. Total Nigeria dropped by N2 to close at N249. Mobil Oil Nigeria declined by N1.73 to close at N167.94.

Guaranty Trust Bank slipped by 30 kobo to close at N24.70. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria dropped by 20 kobo each to close at N5.81 and N3.95 respectively while UACN Property Development Company declined by 19 kobo to close at N3.71 per share.

On the positive side, Lafarge Africa led the contrarian stocks with a gain of 70 kobo to close at N56. Zenith Bank followed with a gain of 30 kobo to close at N15.30. Stanbic IBTC Holdings added 15 kobo to close at N14.10. Eterna rose by 12 kobo to close at N2.62 while African Prudential Registrars gathered 9.0 kobo to close at N2.61 per share.

A total of 313.28 million shares were traded in 2,883 deals. Banking stocks remained atop activities chart. United Bank for Africa (UBA) was the most active with a turnover of 120.73 million shares valued at N507.7 million.

Diamond Bank followed with a turnover of 36.84 million shares worth N39.96 million while Guaranty Trust Bank recorded a turnover of 36.76 million shares valued at N917.31 million.

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