Profit-Taking in Tier-One Banks Weakens Stock Market by 0.09%

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) kicked off the new week on a wrong note on Monday after profit-taking in tier-one banks depressed the market by 0.09 per cent.

Investors booked profit yesterday after share prices of the banking stocks recorded appreciable gains in the past few trading sessions as a result of their strong half-year performance.

At the close of transactions on Monday, GTBank, which led the losers’ chart, lost 65 kobo to sell for N25.90 per share, while Dangote Sugar, which followed, depreciated by 45 kobo to close at N12.05 per unit.

Red Star Express declined by 17 kobo to finish at N3.72 per share, UBA went down by 15 kobo to sell for N6.30 per share, while Zenith Bank lost 10 kobo to settle at N17.30 per unit.

Business Post reports that Stanbic IBTC was the highest price riser on Monday, appreciating by 50 kobo to sell for N38.50 per unit, while Access Bank gained 35 kobo to finish at N6.80 per unit.

C&I Leasing increased its share price by 30 kobo to quote at N3.90 per share, Eterna appreciated by 19 kobo to finish at N2.27 per share, while NEM Insurance gained 18 kobo to close at N2.25 per unit.

During the session, a total of 255.0 million stocks worth N2.0 billion were traded in 4,699 deals compared with the 419.7 million shares worth N3.8 billion traded in 4,152 deals the previous session. This indicated a 39.24 per cent decline in the trading volume, 47.19 per cent decline in the trading value and 13.17 per cent rise in the number of deals.

UBA was the most traded stock as it sold 44.4 million units worth N292.0 million, while Zenith Bank followed after selling 30.8 million equities worth N536.1 million.

Access Bank transacted 29.1 million shares valued at N196.6 million, Custodian Investment traded 26.4 million stocks for N126.7 million, while FBN Holdings exchanged 19.8 million shares worth N98.6 million.

An analysis of the sectorial performance showed that the banking space depreciated on Monday by 0.70 per cent, while the consumer goods sector lost 0.36 per cent.

However, the insurance counter grew by 0.69 per cent, the energy industry appreciated by 0.19 per cent, while the industrial goods sector gained 0.03 per cent.

For the benchmark indicators, the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 23.41 points to settle at 25,582.23 points as against the previous 25,605.64 points, In the same vein, the market capitalisation reduced by N12 billion to close at N13.346 trillion versus N13.358 trillion of last Friday.