Equities market drops by N160bn to commence week on profit-taking
Despite the influx of unaudited financial year results for the period ended December 31, 2019, the equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) started the week on investors profit-taking, as the market capitalisation dropped by N160 billion to N14.697trillion on Monday from N14.857trillion it closed last week.
Consequently, the benchmark index declined by 1.08 per cent to 28,533.4 basis points from 28,843.53 basis points it closed last week, as sell-offs of Tier 1 banking stocks continued.
Also, the Month-to-Date return settled at -1.08per cent, while the Year-to-Date return moderated to 6.30per cent.
The total volume of trades declined by 27.83per cent to 251.59 million units, valued at N3.15 billion and exchanged in 4,752 deals. Zenith Bank was the most traded stock by volume at 47.52 million units, followed by Guaranty Trust bank plc with 35.81 million units of trades on Monday.
FCMB, United Bank for Africa plc (UBA) and FBN Holding ended the trading season with 23.53 million, 18.50 million and 16.49million volume traded.
Guaranty Trust bank plc was the most traded stock by value at N1.06 billion, followed by Zenith bank that recorded N952.8million value of trades on Monday.
On sector performance, the Banking dropped by 3.85per cent to close at 359.41 basis points, recording the largest decline, followed by the Industrial Goods that dropped by 1.25per cent to close at 1,215.02 basis points. Oil & Gas (-0.77per cent), Insurance (-0.14per cent) and Consumer Goods (-0.07per cent) indices.
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative (0.3x), as 23 tickers declined, relative to seven gainers.
Law Union plc top gainers chart on Monday, gaining 10 per cent to close at N0.77 from N0.70 while Honeywell Flour Mills added 9.28 per cent to close at N1.06 from N0.97 it closed on Friday. Livestock plc grew by 3.77 per cent to N0.55 from N0.53 as Unity bank plc gained 1.72 per cent to N0.59 from N0.58 it closed last week.
In addition, Union Bank of Nigeria plc gained 1.69 per cent to N6.00 from N5.90.
In the losers chart, NCR plc leads Forte Oil plc with a decline of 9.97 per cent to close at N2.98 from N3.31 while the indigenous oil/gas company dropped by 9.95 per cent in share price to N18.55 from N20.60 the equities market opened for trading on Monday.
Cadbury Nigeria plc also depreciated by 9.77 per cent to N9.70 while Sterling bank dropped by 9.24 per cent to N1.67 from N1.84 it closed on Friday. Meanwhile, Wapic Insurance plc sheds 9.09 per cent from N0.33 to close on Monday at N0.30 per share.
Meanwhile, at the close of trading session on Monday, the NASD-OTC market characterized by over the counter transaction recorded a depth from six stocks with a total volume of 31,700 units worth N1, 747,790 million in 10 deals.
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