Trading activities on the domestic stock market yesterday closed southward for the third successive sessions, as investors pull out N278 billion on recently appreciated stocks.
The All-Share Index (ASI) lost 531.25 absolute points, representing a decrease of 1.53 per cent to close at 34,242.83 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value also shed N278 billion, to close at N17.893 trillion.
Yesterday’s downtrend was further driven by losses in medium and large capitalised stocks amongst which are; Nestle Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries, Cadbury Nigeria and International Breweries.
Capital market analysts said, the market closed lower, for the third consecutive trading session amidst the continued profit booking across sectors after eight straight weeks of market rally, resulting in losses.
The chief operating officer of InvestData Consulting Limited, Mr Ambrose Omordion said that the good thing is that the pullbacks or price corrections are creating another new buy-in opportunities that will rally when market turn up, despite the fact that factors responsible for the recovery and the bull transition have remained strong over the year.
He added “We expect the NSE index to rebound before the week runs out after the profit taking to sustain this uptrend till early second quarter of 2021.”
Market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative, as 30 stocks declined, relative to 17 gainers. BOC Gases Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 9.96 per cent, to close at N5.85, while GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria followed with a gain of 9.56 per cent to close at N7.45, per share.
Conoil appreciated by 9.45 per cent to close at N20.85, while Mutual Benefits Assurance and Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services rose by 7.69 per cent each, to close at 28 kobo each, per share. On the other hand, oando and Wapic Insurance led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each, to close at N3.24 and 45 kobo, respectively, while Portland Paints & Products Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.97 per cent to close at N2.62, per share.
Livestock Feeds depreciated by 9.92 per cent to close at N1.18 and Cadbury Nigeria declined by 9.85 per cent to close at N9.15, per share.
However, the total volume of trades increased by 1,299 per cent to 9.360 billion units, valued at N12.021 billion and exchanged in 8,712 deals. Transactions in the shares of UACN Property Development Company topped the activity chart with 8.52 billion shares valued at N5.964 billion. Jaiz Bank followed with 304.731 million shares worth N222.222 million, while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) traded 95.949 million shares valued at N97.2926 million.
FBN Holdings (FBNH) traded 82.407 million shares valued at N613.82 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) sold 52.837 million shares worth N440.557 million.