Stocks Dip as Investors Take Profit from Nigerian Bourse

Stocks Dip as Investors Take Profit from Nigerian Bourse

Stocks dip by more than N73 billion on Monday as equity investors take profit from the Nigerian Bourse after closing lower in the previous week. Consequent to the selling rallies spotted by stockbrokers, the Nigerian Exchange performance indicators dipped by 0.29 percent on Valentine’s Day.

Traders at Atlass Portfolios Limited said via email that today’s decline follows the sell-down in bellwether stocks such as AIRTELAFRI, BUAFOODS, GTCO and 20 others. As a result, the Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index sheds 135.53 basis points, representing a decrease of 0.29 percent to close at 46,066.77 points.

Similarly, the equity market capitalisation inched lower by ₦73.04 billion to close at ₦25.36 trillion. Meanwhile, the market activities were bullish as the total volume and value rose by 8.52 percent and 29.41 percent, respectively.

Approximately 338.03 million units valued at ₦5.68 billion were transacted in 5,619 deals, according to stock market data. FIDELITYBK led as the most traded stock in terms of volume, accounting for 10.60 percent of the total volume of trades.

The Tier-2 lender was followed closely by ACCESS (10.02%), TRANSCORP (9.73%), STERLNBANK (7.25%) and GTCO (6.86%) to complete the top five on the volume chart.

Amidst the selling rallies that greeted market participants, MTNN emerged as the most traded stock in value terms, with 29.47 percent of the total value of trades on the exchange. NCR and GUINNESS topped the advancers’ chart with price appreciation of 10.00 percent each.

They were followed by NEM (8.13%), UNILEVER (6.08%), FLOURMILL (3.56%), UACN (2.78%), DANGSUGAR (1.70%), ZENITHBANK (0.56%), UCAP (0.45%), MTNN (0.25%) and thirteen (13) others.

According to data from the Exchange, twenty-three (23) stocks depreciated, led by JAPAULGOLD with a price depreciation of 7.69 percent to close at ₦0.36. Read: Stocks Dip as Local Bourse Sees Worst Bearish Sessions in Months

CUSTODIAN (-7.27%), NGXGROUP (-5.66%), HONYFLOUR (-4.29%), AIRTELAFRI (-1.65%), BUAFOODS (-1.46%), ACCESS (-0.95%), WAPCO (-0.75%), GTCO (-0.75%) and NB (-0.31%) also dipped in price.

However, the market breadth closed at par, recording 23 gainers and 23 losers. Subsequently, the sectorial performance was relatively bearish as three of the five sectors closed negatively compared to the previous session led by Oil & Gas (-0.24%), Insurance (-0.16%) and Industrial Goods (-0.07%).

Consumer Goods and Banking sectors rose by 1.14% and 0.04%, respectively.