Profit-taking in Mid-Cap Stocks Drag NGX Lower
Trading in the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) equities market was positive for most of the day, however late profit-taking activities in some companies’ stock drag market capitalisation lower.
Equity investors sell down in Seplat Energy shares and other mid-cap stocks. Thus, the decision to sell rather than buy more shares drag the equity market downward from making further trajectory following yesterday’s rally.
Due to selling rallies seen today after solid intraday records, the domestic bourse returned the gains from yesterday’s session, as the NGX All Share Index (ASI) dropped by 0.02%.
Stockbrokers said the contraction in the ASI was buoyed by price declines in HONYFLOUR (-0.27%), UBA (-0.58%), UCAP (-0.80%), DANGSUGAR (-1.25%), NB (-1.98%), and SEPLAT (-3.13%).
Overall, the Month-to-Date return and Year-to-Date return printed at -0.09% and +10.85%, respectively. Market data shows that the total volume of trades climbed by 64.39% to about 239.73 million units while the total value was up by 53.15% to about N3.89 billion, exchanged in 3,848 deals.
The most traded stocks by volume for the session were VERITASKAP, transacting about 30.01 million units, UBA traded about 27.73 million units & FBNH sold 23.02 million units.
Meanwhile, the most exchanged stocks by value were MTNN with value traded at N961.43 million, GTCO traded N477.76 million and SEPLAT did N289.73 million. READ: Selloffs in Banking Stocks Drag Nigerian Exchange Lower
Today, equity market sentiment was negative (0.9x) as 17 tickers lost relative to 16 gainers. NIGERINS (-9.1%) and CORNERST (-6.5%) topped the losers’ list, while UACN (+10.0%) and ROYALEX (+9.8%) recorded the most significant gains of the day.
Performance across sectors was mixed as the Insurance (+0.1%) index gained, while the Oil & Gas (-1.8%) and Consumer Goods (-0.5%) indices declined. The Banking and Industrial Goods indices closed flat. #Profit-taking in Mid-Cap Stocks Drag NGX Lower
