Profit-taking Halts NSE Uptrend as Investors Dump High Cap Stocks
After 14 days rally, the equities segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed negative today as profit-taking on some counters halted the gaining streak.
Afrinvest said sell pressures in bellwethers – MTNN (-1.5%), ZENITH (-6.0%) and GUARANTY (-1.6%) -were the key drivers of today’s performance
At the end of trade on Tuesday, the NSE All Share Index (NSE ASI) shed 90 basis points (bps) to 28,650.49 points, as investors lost ₦143.7 billion.
Despite the significant knocked off from equities value, year-to date return of the benchmark index remain positive at 6.74%.
Market capitalisation also shrank to ₦14.975 trillion after increasing for 14 consecutive days.
The top gainers were Berger Plc with share price increased 9.84% to ₦6.70, Linkage Assurance Plc surged 9.76% to ₦0.45, and Nascon Plc did 9.59% to ₦12.00.
On the flip side, among the top loser were Unilever whose share price dropped 9.89% to ₦12.30, Cornerstone Insurance Plc fell by 9.09% to ₦0.60 and ETI Plc declined 8.89% to ₦4.10.
Performance across the sectors was largely negative with only the oil and gas sector closing higher (up 24bps).
Chapel Hill Denham said the financial sectors recorded the highest losses with the NSE banking and the NSE insurance indices shrinking by 3.27% and 1.99% respectively.
The NSE industrial goods and the NSE consumer goods indices also lost 34bps and 10bps respectively.
Market activity was mixed with volume traded increasing by 9.39% to 815mn units and value traded declining by 2.13% to ₦9.246bn.
Today’s most traded stocks were banking stocks, FBNH Plc (128.71mn units), Zenith Plc (120.62mn units) and UBA Plc (83.98mn units).
Meanwhile the top traded by value are Zenith Bank Plc (₦2.44tn), Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (₦2.41tn), and FBNH Plc (₦789.81mn).
The Chapel Hill Denham’s Women Investment Fund (WIF) and Paramount Equity Fund (PEF) closed lower shedding 1.13% and 1.83% respectively.
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Profit-taking Halts NSE Uptrend as Investors Dump High Cap Stocks
