NSE LIVE! Profit-taking halts equities’ rally

The consecutive rally at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) came to a halt on Thursday as investors booked profits and sought to monetise the capital gains that had accrued in recent period. With 27 decliners to 20 advancers, the equities market came under sell pressure as investors lowered share prices to attract demand.

The resultant buyer’s market situation left the equities market with a negative average day-on-day decline of 0.11 per cent, equivalent to net capital loss of N14 billion. The negative overall market position, the first in the past eight trading sessions, was orchestrated largely by losses recorded by large-cap stocks in oil and gas and banking sectors.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the Exchange dropped from its opening value of N13.147 trillion to close at N13.133 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based index that tracks share prices the Exchange, declined by 0.11 per cent to close at 38,102.85 points as against its opening index of 38,144.02 points. With this, the average year-to-date return dipped to 41.78 per cent.

Most sectoral indices also closed in the red with the NSE Oil & Gas Index leading with above-average decline of 2.3 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 1.0 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index closed flat. However, the NSE Consumer Goods Index inched up by 0.4 per cent.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Nestle Nigeria hits N1,200 per share as equities sustain rally

Total Nigeria led the decliners with a drop of N11 to close at N249. Forte Oil followed with a loss of N5.78 to close at N53.76. Dangote Sugar Refinery dropped by 69 kobo to close at N13.56. Nascon Allied Industries dropped by 66 kobo to close at N12.57. Zenith Bank lost 50 kobo to close at N24. Guaranty trust Bank dipped by 47 kobo to close at N40.06. Oando dropped by 38 kobo to close at N7.22. Dangote Flour Mills lost 33 kobo to close at N6.67 per share.Access Bank dipped by 18 kobo to close at N10.25 while Capital Hotel lost 16 kobo to close at N3.15 per share.

Investors traded a total of 362.67 million shares valued at N5.60 billion in 4,055 deals. Banking stocks remained the most active. Access Bank was the most active stock with 69.79 million shares worth N712.4 million. Zenith Bank followed with 58.8 million shares worth N1.44 billion while FCMB Group recorded a turnover of 47.17 million shares valued at N57.3 million.

On the positive side, Nestle Nigeria continued its gaining streak with a gain of N16.01 to set a new high of N1, 216.01. Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of N3.50 to close at N91. Unilever Nigeria appreciated by N2.05 to close at N43.05. Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by N1.50 to close at N40. Conoil added N1.44 to close at N34.30. BOC Gases appreciated by 17 kobo to close at N3.61. FBN Holdings added 8.0 kobo to close at N6.10. May & Baker Nigeria rose by 6.0 kobo to close at N3.17 while Eterna and Fidelity Bank chalked up 5.0 kobo each to close at N3.66 and N1.35 respectively.

 

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