Equities Market Sheds N20bn Over Investors’ Profit-taking in 26 Stocks

Motolani Oseni

The Nigerian stock market on Tuesday relapsed from its uninterrupted five days gaining streak to close on a negative trend as the overall market capitalisation value lost N20 billion to close at N23.631 trillion, due to investors profit-taking in 26 stocks.

Also, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.09 per cent by 37.83 per cent, representing a decline of 0.09 per cent, to close at 43,859.30 points.

The market negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are; Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries (NB), Dangote Cement, Nigerian Exchange Group (NGXGroup) and Berger Paints Nigeria.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 26 stocks lost relative to 17 gainers. BUA Foods recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent to close at N64.35, per share. Eterna followed with a gain of 5.09 per cent to close at N5.57, while Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) rose by 4.63 per cent to close at N5.65, per share.

Wema Bank up by 3.57 per cent to close at 87 kobo, while Oando appreciated by 2.83 per cent to close at N4.73, per share. On the other hand, Mutual Benefits Assurance led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at 27 kobo, per share. Berger Paints followed with a decline of 9.94 per cent to close at N7.70, while UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust lost 8.14 per cent to close at N3.95, per share.

Nestle Nigeria declined 7.81 per cent to close at N1,435.00, while Unity Bank shed 6.12 per cent to close at 46 kobo, per share.

The total volume of trades decreased by 5.4 per cent to 294.539 million units, valued at N6.768 billion, and exchanged in 4,501 deals. Transactions in the shares of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) topped the activity chart with 58.357 million shares valued at N57.360 million. BUA Foods followed with 51.526 million shares worth N3.316 billion, while FBN Holdings (FBNH) traded 16.507 million shares valued at N197.304 million.

Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) traded 14.050 million shares valued at N358.213 million, while Access Bank transacted 13.337 million shares worth N126.749 million.