Stock market closes bearish amid profit taking
By Philemon Adedeji
The Nigerian equities market closed yesterday in red zone amid bearish sentiment in industrial giant, by DANGOTE CEMENT (-1.35 per cent) alongside NESTLE Nigeria (-1.39 per cent) and ZENITH BANK (-0.14 per cent) drove the market’s weak performance outweighing gains in GTCO (+0.52 per cent), ACCESS CORPORATION (+0.87 per cent), and FBNH (+1.11 per cent).
Accordingly, the market remains on for a week of gain.
Absolutely, the benchmark All Share Index (ASI) shed 0.30 per cent to settle at 68,082.11 index points from 68,286.28 index points it closed trade
The market downturn performance was impacted by price depreciation in medium and large capitalised stocks which includes, Dangote Cement, Nestle Nigeria, Courtville Business Solution, Morison, Zenith Bank and 25 others
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 32.84 per cent, with market capitalisation losing N111.74 billion to close at N37.26 trillion.
Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 52.77 per cent.
The trade volume declined to 378.09 million shares valued at N8.38 billion were exchanged in 8,106 deals.
OANDO (-4.76 per cent) led the volume chart with 91.64 million units traded while NESTLE Nigeria (-1.39 per cent) led the value chart in deals worth N1.93 billion.
Market breadth closed negative as 26 stocks constituted the gainers relative to 30 that lost. On the gainers chart, Beta glas emerged as the most price gainer which rose by 9.97 per cent to close at N51.85 per share, followed by 9.86 per cent to close at N15.60 per share, while Cadbury rose by 9.81 per cent to close at N5.26 per share.
Tantalizer which emerged as the last fourth gainer rose by 9.52 per cent to close at N0.46 per share.
On the other hand, Morison led the losers with 8.89 per cent to close at N2.55 per share, closely followed by Courtville Business Solution which lost 7.69 per cent to close at N0.60 per share, while Nascon Allied went down by 6.83 per cent to close at N56.60 per share.
Rt.briscoe which came as the last fourth loser dipped by 6.82 per cent to close at N0.41 per share, while Wema Bank suffered 6.42 per cent to close at N5.10 per share.
