Profit-taking in bellwethers costs stocks N393bn, 2021’s first loss
Equity investors in Nigeria experienced their first loss of the year on Tuesday as the stock market reversed previous gains, shedding N393 billion.
The downturn was driven by profit-taking on bellwethers, particularly BUA Cement, MTN Nigeria and Zenith Bank Plc, losing -5.9 per cent, -2.8 per cent and -4.3 per cent respectively.
Precisely, the benchmark index declined by 751.25 points or 1.83 per cent to 40,396.14 points while aggregate valuation equities in the local bourse closed lower at N21.122 trillion. Accordingly, Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) gains moderated to +0.3 per cent.
The session witnessed aggressive booking of profit by investors, reflected in the bloated activity level with traded volume and value appreciating by 119.73 per cent and 263.49 in that order.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative, following declines across the Banking (-3.0 per cent), Industrial Goods (-2.7 per cent), Consumer Goods (-0.3 per cent).
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative (0.4x), as 34 tickers lost, relative to 15 gainers.
In order of appearance, trading statistics by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) show that SEPLAT topped gainers with N7.7 gain to close at N410 per share, followed by BOGAS which gained N0.93 to close at N10.50 per share.
Others gainers include AFRIPRUD and ETERNA adding N0.35 each to their share prices to close at N6.75 and N5.75 per share respectively while VITAFOAM lost N0.20 to close at N8.75 per share.
On the flip side, BUACEMENT topped decliners’ chart with N5 loss to close at N80 per share. MTN Nigeria trailed shed N4.70 to close at N165.20 per share.
Other decliners include Zenith Bank, Okomu Oil and Guaranty, losing N1.10, N1 and N0.95 to close at N24.60, N90 and N32.55 per share respectively.
