Investors Lose N96b to Profit Taking as 35 Stocks Fall

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Transactions resumed on Tuesday on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) after the market closed on Friday and Monday in celebration of the end of Ramadan.

However, at the close of business yesterday, the stock market depreciated by 0.68 percent with the Year-to-Date returns shrinking to 1.10 percent.

Business Post reports that the loss recorded by the local bourse was mainly as a result of profit taking by investors especially in the banking space.

At the end of the day, the market breadth ended negative with 35 stocks depreciating in value, while 13 equities appreciated.

Unilever Nigeria emerged the heaviest price loser after going down by N2 to settle at N53 per share, while Forte Oil followed with N1.80k of its share price lost to close at N35.15k per share.

Flour Mills of Nigeria went down by N1.60k to finish at N31.15k per share, NASCON closed N1.15k lower to end at N22.80k per share, while Zenith Bank declined by 90 kobo to close at N25.50k per share.

On the flip side, International Breweries topped the gainers’ chart on Tuesday with N2.70k added to its share value to finish at N44 per share.

Eterna grew by 31 kobo to close at N6.61k per share, while Ikeja Hotel appreciated by 14 kobo to end at N2.99k per share.

Nigerian Breweries went up by 10 kobo to finish at N110.10k per share, while C&I Leasing increased by 9 kobo to settle at N1.82k per share.

Business Post reports that the market capitalisation reduced at the close of transactions on Tuesday by N96 billion to settle at N14.006 trillion, while the All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 263.87 points to finish at 38,664.15 points.

Despite the loss recorded by the market yesterday, the volume and value of transactions went up 16 percent and 16.57 percent respectively.

It was observed that there were huge transactions around the Financial Services sector, leading the activity chart with 301.1 million shares exchanged for N3.8 billion, while the Industrial Goods sector followed with 34.6 million equities sold for N934 million.

At the close of the day, UBA emerged the most traded stock at the market, trading a total of 123 million shares worth N1.3 billion.

It was followed by Zenith Bank, which sold 35.8 million equities valued at N919.9 million, and Access Bank, which transacted 34.8 million shares for N365.5 million.

CCNN exchanged 32.7 million equities worth N850.4 million, while GTBank traded 23 million shares valued at N927.1 million.