Market Sheds N246bn as Investors Offload Dangote Cement Stocks

By Dipo Olowookere

Investors embarked on profit-taking in Dangote Cement at the stock market on Friday, causing the bourse to depreciate by 1.16 per cent at the close of business.

The shares of the cement company had been on a bull run in the past days following the announcement of the commencement of its much-awaited share buyback programme.

During the trading session yesterday, the stock went down by N19.90 to settle at N225 per share, while its competitor, Lafarge Africa depreciated by 10 kobo to close at N22.30 per unit.

Vitafoam declined by 5 kobo to end at N8.95 per share, University Press dropped 3 kobo to sell at N1.25 per unit, while Red Star Express fell by 3 kobo to quote at N3.40 per share.

On the gainers’ table, Seplat dominated with a price appreciation of N45.10 to sell at N496.10 per share, while Total Nigeria gained N13 to close at N143 per unit.

Okomu Oil grew by N2.50 to quote at N92.50 per share, Ardova appreciated by N1.45 to sell for N16.35 per unit, while BOC Gases jumped by N1.15 to close at N12.65 per share.

On the activity chart, investors traded 333.3 million shares worth N3.7 billion executed in 5,142 deals compared with the 2.1 million stocks worth N7.5 billion traded in 4,558 deals, indicating 84.38 per cent decline in the trading volume, 51.42 per cent drop in the trading value and 12.81 per cent rise in the number of deals.

Access Bank was the most active stock with the sale of 35.1 million shares worth N315.8 million, Transcorp traded 25.1 million equities valued at N24.1 million, GTBank exchanged 24.9 million stocks worth N821.3 million, Zenith Bank transacted 23.7 million shares for N606.3 million, while Japaul traded 22.4 million stocks for N21.7 million.

Business Post reports that on Friday, only the industrial sector closed bearish with a 4.02 per cent decline. The energy sector gained 6.98 per cent, the banking space rose by 1.31 per cent, consumer goods counter appreciated by 0.42 per cent, while the insurance sector grew by 0.26 per cent.

At the close of transactions for the week yesterday, the All-Share Index (ASI) went down by 470.63 points to settle at 40,120.22 points as against the previous 40,590.85 points.

Also, the market capitalisation depreciated by N246 billion to finish at N20.978 trillion as against the previous N21.224 trillion.