Profit-taking halts gaining streak as market capitalisation sheds N27b

As anticipated, profit-taking by investors at the Nigerian equities sector halted six days of bullish run to commence trading on a downturn yesterday, causing market capitalisation to depreciate by N27 billion.
 
Yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 51.30 absolute points or 0.17 per cent to close at 30,479.39 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation lost N27 billion to close at N15.931 trillion.
   
The downtrend was impacted by losses recorded in large and medium value stocks, including Mobil Nigeria, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Julius Berger, C&I Leasing, and International Breweries.

Vetiva Capital said: “The domestic bourse kick-started the new week on a quiet tone amidst profit taking action and reduced turnover. Taking a cue from the negative sectoral performances, negative market breadth, declining prices of crude oil, coupled with the rising cases of the Coronavirus pandemic across major economies, we expect the market to remain soft in the next few sessions.
   
“However given where yields are in the FI market, we expect funds to continue to be channelled to some attractive counters in the equities market, thus reducing the impact of the general weak sentiment.”
 
Trading sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, was negative, as 26 stocks declined relative to 22 gainers. Livestock Feeds recorded the highest price gain of 9.88 per cent to close at 89 kobo per share.