The Nigerian stock market yesterday halted a five-days positive run with a decline of N39 billion following profit taking in some high capitalised stocks to commence trading for this week.
The All Share Index (ASI) shed 93.76 absolute points, representing a loss of 0.23 per cent to close at 41,082.38 points. Accordingly, investors lost N39 billion in value as market capitalisation went down to N21.491 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Dangote Cement, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria, NASCON Allied Industries and FBN Holdings (FBNH).
This week, analysts at United Capital Plc said “While we expect investors to book some profit from last week’s gains, demand for high-yield dividend companies should sustain the market’s bullish momentum.”
Also, Afrinvest Limited said “In the next trading session, we expect to see investors take profit. However, we are optimistic that the market will close on a positive note this week.”
However, market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was positive, as 35 stocks gained, relative to 22 losers. African Alliance Insurance, AIICO Insurance, Cadbury Nigeria, R.T. Briscoe, Trans-Nationwide Express and Universal Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at 22 kobo, N1.32, N10.45, 22 kobo, 88 kobo and 22 kobo, respectively, per share.
BOC Gases followed with a gain 9.98 per cent to close at N13.77, while Livestock Feeds rose by 9.95 per cent to close at N2.32, per share. On the other hand, Japaul Gold and Ventures led the losers’ chart by 6.58 per cent, to close at N1.42, per share. Flour Mills of Nigeria followed with a decline of 5.49 per cent, to close at N31.00, while Wema Bank shed 5.33 per cent to close at 71 kobo, per share.
Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals shed 4.76 per cent to close at N2.00, while GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria depreciated by 4.29 per cent to close at N6.70, per share.
Meanwhile, the total volume traded increased by 10.77 per cent to 738.525 million shares, worth N4.173 billion, and traded in 7,396 deals. Transactions in the shares of Japaul Gold and Ventures topped the activity chart with 92.361 million shares valued at N145.793 million.
Universal Insurance followed with 51.789 million shares worth N10.407 million, while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) traded 43.145 million shares valued at N46.165 million.
FBNH traded 39.767 million shares valued at N298.247 million, while AXA Mansard Insurance transacted 38.199 million shares worth N63.882 million.