Trading closes southward on NSE, loses N279bn

Activities at the nation’s bourse closed southward on Tuesday for the second consecutive days, with market capitalisation dropping N279 billion on continuous profit taking.

It was reported that the market capitalisation dipped N279 billion or 1.53 per cent to close at N17.892 trillion against N18.171 trillion on Monday.

In the same vein, the All-Share Index lost 531.25 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 34,242.83 from 34,774.08 posted on Monday.

The downtrend was further driven by losses in medium and large capitalised stocks among which are Nestle, Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury and International Breweries.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer of InvestData Ltd., attributed the development to profit-booking across sectors after eight straight weeks of market rally.

Omordion said that the pullback was creating another new buy-in opportunities for the market.

“We expect the NSE index to rebound before the week runs out after the profit taking to sustain uptrend till early second quarter of 2021,” he said.

Market sentiment as measured by market breadth, was negative as 30 stocks declined, relative to 17 gainers.

Oando and Wapic Insurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, dropping 10 per cent each to close at N3.24 and 45k per share, respectively.

Portland Paints & Products trailed with a loss of 9.97 per cent to close at N2.62 per share.

Livestock Feeds depreciated by 9.92 per cent to close at N1.18 and Cadbury lost 9.85 per cent to close at N9.15 per share.

Similarly, BOC Gases topped the gainers’ chart in percentage, posting 9.96 per cent to close at N5.85 per share.

GlaxoSmithKline came second with 9.56 per cent to close at N7.45 per share.

Conoil appreciated by 9.45 per cent to close at N20.85, while Mutual Benefits Assurance and Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services rose by 7.69 per cent each to close at 28k per share each.

However, the total volume of trades increased by 1,299 per cent as investors bought and sold 9.36 billion shares, valued at N12.02 exchanged in 8,712 deals.

This was in contrast to 668.53 million shares worth N7.85 billion traded in 10,319 deals on Monday.

Transactions in the shares of UACN Property Development Company topped the activity chart with 8.52 billion shares valued at N5.96 billion.

Jaiz Bank followed with 304.73 million shares worth N222.22 million, while Transcorp sold 95.93 million shares, valued at N97.29 million.

FBN Holdings accounted for 82.41 million shares worth N613.82 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 52.84 million shares, valued at N440.56 million.