Investors in equities market lose N120bn over profit-taking

Investors in the equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday lost N128 billion investment following profit-taking in high-mid capitalized stocks.

Specifically, the market capitalization dropped to N15.18 trillion on Tuesday from N15.30 trillion it closed on Monday.

Accordingly, the equities market benchmark, All-Share Index on Tuesday recorded a decline of 0.83 per cent to 29,462.76 basis points on Tuesday from 29,710.56 basis points to halt three days consecutive gaining streak.

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The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are, Dangote Cement, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, BUA Cement and Zenith Bank.

Capital market analysts attributed the decline to profit-taking, mostly on bellwether stocks. Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said that “We expect performance in the market to remain mixed in the near term. However, there are still opportunities for bargain hunting.”

On sectors, significant losses recorded in the Banking sector dampened the market performance, after the index slid by -3.58per cent; the Industrial Goods (-0.45percent) index also declined. On the flip side, the Consumer Goods (+0.34per cent), Oil & Gas (+0.29per cent) and Insurance (+0.70per cent) indices closed positive.

Market breadth closed slight negative, with 15 gainers versus 16 losers. Law Union and Rock Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 9.09 per cent, to close at 60 kobo, per share. Unity Bank followed with a gain 6.15 per cent to close at 69 kobo, while Lafarge Africa appreciated  by 6.12 per cent to close at N17.35, per share.

Honeywell Flour Mills went up by 4.85 per cent to close at N1.08, while Courteville Business Solutions appreciated by 4.35 per cent to close at 24 kobo, per share. On the other hand, Arbico Plc led the losers’ chart by 9.97 per cent, to close at N3.16, per share. Eterna followed with a decline of 9.72 per cent to close at N3.25, while Champion Breweries went down by 7.14 to close at 91 kobo, per share.

Access Bank lost 6.51 per cent to close at N10.05, while Guaranty Trust Bank shed 5.29 per cent to close at N32.20, per share.

However, the total volume traded rose by 2.2 per cent to 272.84 million shares, worth N3.71 billion, and traded in 4,945 deals. Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 57.81 million shares valued at N1.31 billion. Access Bank followed with 33 million shares worth N340.75 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 22.43 million shares valued at N193.72 million.

Oando traded 18.21 million shares valued at N65.59 million, while FCMB Groups transacted 16.24 million shares worth N32.33 million.

“The equities market closed down today as result of the losses recorded in the Industrial and Banking sectors. We still maintain our view that investors should take positions in quality names with a medium to long time investment horizon as prices remain attractive at current levels,” analysts at InvestmentOne research added.