After several months of consistent upbeat, the Nigerian stock market, yesterday, reversed some gains to close on a downturn as market capitalisation declined by N121 billion amid price depreciation in 53 stocks.
The all-share index (ASI) declined by 191.09 per cent, representing a loss of 0.13 per cent, to close at 145,864.8 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value shed N121 billion to close at N92.284 trillion.
The negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks which are Lafarge Africa, Nigerian Breweries, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM), Berger Paints and Zenith Bank.
Analysts attributed the negative sentiment to profit-taking embarked upon by investors on the exchange. According to them, investors want to leverage the robust appreciation recorded over the past few months to take some gains.
On what will shape the market in the next trading session, analysts at Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage said: “Profit-taking is likely to persist tomorrow (today) as momentum cools and many counters sit at or near overbought levels. We recommend a measured stance: trim into strength and redeploy on dips in fundamentally solid names.”
Despite the overall dip, market breadth turned positive with 53 gainers against 21 losers, reflecting sustained buying interest from bargain hunters even amid profit-taking pressure.
FTN Cocoa Processors, Learn Africa, Prestige Assurance, R.T. Briscoe, Tripple Gee & Company and Caverton Offshore Support Group recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each to close at N6.93 kobo, N7.70 kobo, N2.42 kobo, N3.74 kobo, N5.17 kobo and N7.92 kobo respectively.
AXA Mansard Insurance followed with a gain of 9.99 per cent to close at N19.48 kobo, while Ellah Lakes and Consolidated Hallmark Holdings up by 9.96 per cent each to close at N17.66 kobo and N5.63 kobo respectively.
On the other hand, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N3.42, per share. UPDC followed with a decline of 7.94 per cent to close at N8, while Legend Internet lost 6.35 per cent to close at N5.60 kobo.
Berger Paints down by 6.16 per cent to close at N32, while Champion Breweries declined by 5.75 per cent to close at N16.38 kobo. The total volume traded advanced by 5.06 per cent to 1.342 billion units, valued at N20.215 billion, and exchanged in 30,749 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Universal Insurance topped the activity chart with 193.435 million shares valued at N282.415 million. Japaul Gold and Ventures followed with 123.163 million shares worth N389.976 million, while Veritas Kapital Assurance traded 93.216 million shares valued at N260.054 million.
Access Holdings traded 84.985 million shares valued at N2.347 billion, while Sterling Financial Holdings Company transacted 68.202 million shares worth N552.619 million.
