Stock Market Reverses Gains on Renewed Profit Taking
UMORU ABDULKADIR
At the trading floor on Monday bearish sentiment pushed the All Share Index southward marginally by 0.04 per cent to close at 26,990.59 points following losses in Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (-5.00%), UACN (-8.75%), GlaxoSmithKline (-4.00%), Guaranty Trust Bank (-0.49%) and First City Monument Bank (-5.47%).
Consequently, the Year to Date YTD return worsened at -14.6 per cent, as the market breadth also closed negative with 12 gainers against 17 losers.
Specifically, the All-Share Index which opened the day at 27,002.15 points declined by 11.56 basis points or 0.04 per cent to close lower at 26,990.59 points.
Similarly, the market capitalization which opened with N13.033 trillion shed N5.6 billion or 0.04 per cent to close the day lower at N13.027 trillion.
A breakdown of the price movement chart showed that Cement Company of Northern Nigeria led the losers chart with a loss of 100 kobo to close at N19 per share, followed by UACN which shed 70 kobo to close at N7.3 per share. GlaxoSmithKline dropped 25 kobo to close at N6 per share. While Guaranty Trust Bank dipped 15 kobo to close at NN30.3, First City Monument bank fell by 11 kobo to close at N1.9 per share, among others.
Conversely, Unilever Nigeria led the gainers’ chart when it gained 160 kobo to close at N17.7 per share, followed by International breweries which inched up 60 kobo to close trading at N10 per unit of share. Dangote Cement nicked 20 kobo to settle at N143 per share. While Axamansard Insurance advanced by 10 kobo to close at N1.8, Sterling Bank appreciated by 8 kobo to close at N2.05, thereby rounding off the table for top five gainers on Monday.
A look at the activity chart showed that FCMB topped the activity chart with 97.8 million turnover worth N186 million, followed by Zenith Bank, which accounted for 21.8 million units of shares estimated at N406.8 million. FBN Holdings exchanged 15.2 million units of shares valued at N102.8 million. While Nigeria Breweries traded 12 million shares worth N614.9 million, United bank for Africa sold 11.9 million units shares valued at N84.1 million to boost market volume and value respectively.
Commenting on today’s market bearish outlook, a research analysts at FSDH, Mr. Jide Solanken said today’s bearish trend in the equities market was due to general investors’ apathy to buy occasioned by weak macro-economic indicators. He also attributed the negative trend to the renewed profit taking in banking stocks arising from previous day’s gains.
He maintained that the bearish outlook should continue in the next trading session, as he implores investors to stick with quality names with higher return on investments.
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