NSE Drifts South on Account of Profit Taking in Banking Stocks
The Nigerian Stock Exchange halted successive bullish trend on Thursday on account of profit taking in banking stocks.
All-Share Index fell 22bps to close at 25,166.01 points due to sell-offs in UBA (-6.3%), ZENITH (-2.5%) and GUARANTY (-1.8%).
Consequently, investors lost ₦28.8 billion as market capitalisation settled at ₦13.144 trillion as year to date (YTD) loss worsened to -6.2%.
Activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined 40.1% and 38.6% to 348.2 million units and ₦3.4 billion respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were FBNH (47.4m units) ACCESS (36.9m units), and ZENITH (27.4m units) while GUARANTY (₦576.2m), ZENITH (₦478.1m) and MTNN (₦474.3m) led by value.
Performance across all sectors under Afrinvest’s analysts coverage was mixed as 3 indicators lost against the 3 that gained.
Stock market drops due to sell-offs
The Banking index (-2.8%) led the losers as investors took profit in UBA (-6.3%), ZENITH (-2.5%) and GUARANTY (-1.8%).
Likewise, the Oil & Gas (-0.6%) and Consumer Goods (-0.1%) indices lost due to sell-offs in OANDO (-5.7%) and FLOURMILL (-4.8%).
Conversely, the Insurance (+1.2%) index recorded the most gain on the back of buying interest in CORNERSTONE (+7.7%) and MANSARD (+8.2%).
Similarly, price appreciation in MTNN (+0.9%) and DANGCEM (+0.9%) saw the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices close higher by 0.5% and 0.2% respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth fell to 1.0x from the 2.8x recorded in the previous session as 18 stocks gained while 18 lost.
The top gainers were CUTIX (+9.9%), MAYBAKER (+9.7%) and CHAMPION (+9.6%) while ETI (-9.9%), IKEJAHOTEL (-8.7%) and UBA (-6.2%) led the losers.
“We expect bargain hunting to support market performance in the next trading session”, Afrinvest stated.
NSE Drifts South on Account of Profit Taking in Banking Stocks
