Nigerian equities Sheds 0.17% as profit-taking returns

Nigerian equities Sheds 0.17% as profit-taking returns

Trading in the domestic equities market started the week and month on a sour note, as sell-offs of some banking stocks – majorly ETI (-8.9 per cent), FCMB (-9.9 per cent) and ZENITHBANK (-0.7 per cent) — dragged the market down to close the Monday session.

As investors sell stocks that have appreciated in recent times to book for profit, the development caused the All Share Index (ASI) to record its first loss in seven consecutive sessions, as it declined by 0.17 per cent to 30,479.39 basis points. Consequently, Year-to-Date (YtD) gain moderated to 13.6 per cent.

The total volume of trades decreased by 53.4 per cent to 376.65 million units, valued at N3.81 billion and exchanged in 6,050 deals.

FIDELITYBK was the most traded stock by volume at 49.90 million units, while ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by value grossing a value turnover of N1.03 billion.

Analysing by sectors, the Oil & Gas, banking and Industrial goods indices slipped by -1.2 per cent, -0.8 per cent and -0.1 per cent respectively, while the Insurance and consumer goods indices recorded gains by 0.7 per cent and 0.6 per cent in that order.

Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative as 26 tickers declined, relative to 22 gainers.

Livestock Feeds recorded the highest price gain of 9.88 per cent to close at N0.89 per share. Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with a gain of 9.78 per cent to close at N15.15, while NPF Microfinance Bank rose by 9.68 per cent to close at N1.70 per share.

Regency Alliance Insurance went up by 9.09 per cent to close at N0.24, while Royal Exchange appreciated by 8.70 per cent to close at N0.25 per share.

On the contrary, C& I Leasing led the losers’ chart by depreciating 10 per cent, to close at N3.96, per share. FCMB Group followed with a decline of 9.90 per cent to close at N2.82 while ETI shed 8.85 per cent to close at N5.15 per share.