Trading on NGX back to negative territory, indices down 0.58%

The Nigeria Exchange (NGX) Ltd., on Monday returned to negative path with key market indicators declining marginally by 0.58 per cent amid profit taking in highly capitalised equities.

Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N29.158 trillion on Monday declined by 168.82 billion or 0.58 per cent to close at N28.989 trillion.

Similarly, the All Share Index (ASI) decreased by 313.16 points to close at 53,772.14 against 54,085.30 on Friday.

The downtrend was impacted by losses recorded in highly capitalised stocks, amongst which are MTN Nigeria, PRESCO, WAPCO and Stanbic Bank.

Market closed positive with 25 gainers versus 17 losers.

TransExpress led the gainers chart in percentage terms growing by 9.86 per cent to close at 78k per share.

NPF Microfinance Bank followed with 9.76 per cent growth to close at N1.80, while UACN increased by 9.52 per cent to close at N11.50 per share.

Jaiz Bank improved by 8.97 per cent to close at 85k, while Livestock appreciated by 6.67 per cent to close at N1.60 per share.

Conversely, Presco led the losers chart in percentage terms dropping by 10 per cent to close at N162.

UPL and FTNCocoa declined by 8.77 and 8.56 per cent each to close N2.60 and 32k per share respectively.

Mayer and Baker followed with a loss of 7.60 per cent to close at N4.01 per share.

Wema Bank lost 6.85 per cent to close at N3.40 per share.

The total volume of shares traded showed that investors exchanged 27.56 million shares worth N194.36 billion transacted in 4,586 deals.

This was in contrast with a total of 208.09 million shares valued at N5.52 billion shares achieved in 4,898 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN) topped the activity chart with 27.34 billion shares valued at N191.36 billion.

Transcorp followed with 70.07 million shares worth N85.10 million, while AccessCorp traded 21.25 million shares valued at N212.35 million.

Jaiz Bank sold 16.27 million shares worth N13.63 million, while Sterling Bank transacted 10.54 million shares worth N15.87 million.