By Dipo Olowookere
The first trading session of this week ended bearish on Monday as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) went down by 0.84 percent at the close of business, reducing the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns to 6.37 percent.
This was caused by profit taking in large cap stocks like Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank, Nestle Nigeria and others.
Business Post reports that the loss occurred after the market had closed on a positive note for the first time last week on Friday, gaining 0.26 percent.
When market activities were wrapped up yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 344.7 points to finish at 40,677.61 points, while the market capitalisation reduced by N125 billion to settle at N14.735 trillion.
Also, the market breadth ended negative on Monday with 32 price losers and 11 price gainers, while all sectors except the oil and gas finished negative.
The Consumer Goods industry was the heaviest loser after going down by 1.55 percent, Insurance went down by 1.74 percent, Banking declined by 0.44 percent, while the Industrial Goods index fell by 0.25 percent. This was caused by profit taking in shares of Nestle Nigeria, which lost 3.16 percent; Custodian and Allied, which dropped 3.65 percent; Zenith Bank, which reduced by 0.52 percent; and Dangote Cement, which crashed by 0.61 percent respectively.
However, the Oil & Gas index appreciated by 0.01 percent as a result of buying interest in equities of Eterna, which rose by 1.01 percent yesterday.
At the close of transactions, Nestle Nigeria topped the losers’ table, decreasing by N50 to settle at N1530 per share.
Okomu Oil went down by N4.50k to close at N85.50k per share, while Nigerian Breweries dropped N2.50k to end at N122 per share.
Dangote Cement lost N1.50k yesterday to finish at N243.50k per share, while Oando declined by 40k to close at N7.75k per share.
At the other side, Caverton emerged the biggest price gainer after adding 13k to its share value to close at N2.74k per share.
Fidson followed with 11k added to its share price to end at N5.49k per share, and Cutix, which rose by 10k to finish at N3.15k per share.
FCMB increased on Monday by 9k to settle at N2.63k per share, while Eterna grew by 7k to finish at N7 per share.
The volume of equities traded by investors increased yesterday by 1.95 percent, however, the value of shares sold depreciated by 47.32 percent.
A total of 218.8 million shares exchanged hands on Monday in 4,109 deals worth N2.2 billion in contrast to 214.6 million equities transacted last Friday in 3,675 deals valued at N4.2 billion.
A breakdown showed that shares in the Financial Services sector dominated the activity chart yesterday with a total of 170 million units sold for N1.3 billion, while those in the Services came second with 12.5 million shares traded for N51 million.
A further breakdown showed that UBA was investors’ toast at the market with a total of 60.5 million shares sold for N706.6 million.
It was trailed by FCMB, which traded 17.5 million equities for N45.7 million, and Soverign Trust Insurance, which exchanged 12.4 million shares valued at N2.5 million.
FBN Holdings sold 11.9 million units worth N143.1 million, while Fidelity Bank exchanged 10.5 million equities at N25.3 million.
Adedapo Adesanya