Equities market sheds N62bn over profit-taking in BUA Cement, others

The equities market of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) closed lower on Wednesday’s session, as investors took profit in market heavyweight stocks amid renewed profit taking activity.

The All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 120.11 basis points, representing a dip of 0.47 per cent to close at 25,215.04 basis points.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date return turned negative with 0.2 per cent loss, while the Year-to-Date loss increased to 6.1 per cent. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation size shed N62 billion to close at N13.154 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; BUA Cement, UAC of Nigeria (UACN), CI Leasing, Guinness Nigeria and Zenith Bank.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said, “We expect profit-taking activities to drag the performance of the equities market for the rest of the week.”

Consequently, the market breadth closed the same proportion with 19 gainers and 19 losers. Berger Paints and Prestige Assurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent each, to close at N7.70 and 77 kobo respectively, per share. Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with a gain 9.86 per cent to close at N5.80, while Mutual Benefits Assurance and Royal Exchange rose by 9.09 per cent each to close at 24 kobo each, per share.

UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust went up by 8.57 per cent to close at N3.80, while Cornerstone Insurance rose by eight per cent to close at 54 kobo, per share. On the other hand, CI Leasing led the losers’ chart by 9.43 per cent, to close at N4.80, per share. UACN followed with a decline of 9.09 per cent to close at N7.50, while Japaul Oil and Maritime Services shed eight per cent to close at 23 kobo, per share.

Red Star Express went down by 7.30 per cent to close at N3.30, while Cutix shed 5.33 per cent to close at N1.60, per share.

The total volume of trades decreased marginally by 0.8 per cent to 266.65 million units, valued at N3.183 billion and exchanged in 3,978 deals. Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with 69.410 million shares valued at N1.677 billion.  Mutual Benefits Assurance followed with 51.763 million shares worth N12.392 million, while FBN Holdings traded 31.214 million shares valued at N167.672 million.

Japaul Oil and Maritime Services traded 18.736 million shares valued at N4.313 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 16.439 million shares worth N274.860 million.