Profit-taking in the banking space at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ensured that the stock market opened the week bearish by 0.60 percent at the close of transactions on Monday.
An analysis of the sectoral performance showed that the banking index was the only loser yesterday, depreciating by 2.00 percent to have a heavy impact on the market. The consumer goods sector increased by 0.42 percent, while the insurance index printed a marginal gain of 0.01 percent. The industrial goods and energy sectors closed flat.
As a result of selloffs witnessed in the banking space, the All-Share Index (ASI) reduced by 160.59 points to settle at 26,691.09 points in contrast to the previous closing figures of 26,851.68 points, while the market capitalisation decreased by N188.8 billion to close at N12.883 trillion against N13.071 trillion it ended last Friday.
It was observed that during the trading day, the level of activity weakened as the volume of shares transacted by investors went down by 34.47 percent to 308.0 million units from 470.0 million units, while the value of stocks traded declined by 54.60 percent to N2.5 billion from N5.6 billion, with the number of deals carried out by traders going down by 17.61 percent to 4,609 deals from 5,594 deals.
A critical look into the trades showed that UAC Nigeria was the most traded stock on Monday, selling 102.6 million shares worth N636.2 million, while Zenith Bank followed with 29.6 million units valued at N555.8 million.
UBA exchanged 20.8 million stocks for N147.4 million, Access Bank sold 20.2 million equities worth N195.6 million, while FBN Holdings traded 14.7 million shares valued at N96.7 million.
Despite the activities on Customs Street closing negative on Monday, the market breadth ended positive with 16 price gainers led by Guinness Nigeria and 14 price losers led by Okomu Oil.
Share price of Okomu Oil went down yesterday by N2.95 to close at N50 per unit, while Access Bank lost 70 kobo to finish at N9.80 per share. Ecobank went down by 50 kobo to settle at N7 per unit, UBA fell by 35 kobo to close at N7.05 per unit, while Caverton depreciated by 20 kobo to end at N2.50 per share.
On the flip side, Guinness Nigeria gained N2.40 to trade at N31 per share, Stanbic IBTC rose by N1 to finish at N39 per unit, Custodian Investment increased its share price by 50 kobo to trade at N6 per share, Dangote Sugar appreciated by 25 kobo to sell at N11.95 per share, while UAC Nigeria improved by 15 kobo to quote at N6.75 per unit.
