Investors’ profit-taking pushes market capitalisation down by 0.06%

Trading at the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) on Wednesday took a plunge, as the market capitalisation closed at N27.29 trillion down from N27.3 trillion recorded on Tuesday.

Consequently, the market lost N16.76 billion, representing 0.06 per cent.

The negative performance was due to sell-offs in some largely capitalised stocks which include BUA Cement, MTN Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries.

Similarly the All-Share Index (ASI) was down by 0.06 per cent to settle at 50,594.97 points from 50,626.04 posted at the previous trading.

The year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 18.44 per cent.

Market breadth closed positive as 22 stocks advanced while 15 others declined.

At the end of the trading session, 121.16 million units of shares worth N4.169 billion were traded in 4,369 deals.

This represents an increase of 45.69 per cent when compared with 129.166 million units of shares worth N2.861 in 4,706 deals.

Lasaco Assurance led the gainers with 10 per cent price appreciation to close at 99k per share.

UPDC followed with 9.71 per cent increase to close at N1.13 per share, while Honeywell Flour Mill went up by 9.69 per cent to close at N2.49 per share.

Also, Chams rose by 8.7 per cent to close at 25k per share and Japaul Gold increased by 7.41 per cent to close at 29k per share.

On the other hand, Learn Africa led the laggards’ chat with a depreciation of 10 per cent at N2.34 per share.

University Press followed by 9.79 per cent to close N2.12 per share.

Cornerstone Insurance and Unity Bank declined by 9.33 per cent and 4.26 per cent each to close at 68k and 45k respectively.

Regent Alliance Insurance dropped by 3.85 per cent to close at 25k per share.

MTN Nigeria recorded the highest volume of 10.4 million traded shares worth N2.4 billion.

FBN Holdings followed with 9.53 million shares traded amounting to N104.18 million, while Zenith Bank sold 8.37 million shares worth N178.85 million.

Also, United Bank for Africa transacted 6.81 million worth of shares at N48.08 million and AccessCorp sold 6.61 million shares worth N58.99 million.