By Nse Anthony-Uko
(Sundiata Finance) — The Nigerian equities market, on Monday shed 0.31 per cent, beginning the week in the red and bringing to a halt bullish run of three consecutive trading sessions amid profit taking.
In summary, the All Share Index (ASI) shed 115.13 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.31 per cent to close at 37,250.78 points.
The market capitalisation shed N36 billion to close at N12.973 trillion. The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are, Mobil, Guinness Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC, Flourmill Nigeria and Unilever Nigeria.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited noted that “following the negative market performance yesterday, we expect bargain hunting, especially in banking stocks to buoy market performance in subsequent trading sessions.”
Similarly, market breadth closed negative with 18 gainers against 24 losers. Law Union Insurance led the gainers table by 4.92 per cent, to close at 64 kobo per share. Nahco followed with a gain of 4.87 per cent to close at N4.09, while Dangote Flour appreciated by 4.01 per cent to close at N9.60 per share.
PZ Industries rose by 3.78 per cent to close at N23.87, while Nascon gained 3.31 per cent to close at N15.60. On the other hand, Airline Services led the laggards’ table by 4.88 per cent, to close at N5.85 per share. Portland Paints trailed with a loss of 4.76 per cent, to close at N2, while Stanbic IBTC and UPL shed 4.74 per cent each, to close at N40 and N2.41 per share, respective.
Also, Linkage Assurance declined by 4.69 per cent to close at 61 kobo, per share.
The total volume traded went up by 8.29 per cent to 942.72 million shares, valued at N4.78 billion, and traded in 3,868 deals. Transactions in the shares of Wapic Insurance topped the activity chart with 650.54 million shares valued at N325.27 million. Tantalizer followed with 43.81 million shares worth N21.91 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 31.87 million shares valued at N54.25 million.
Zenith Bank traded 25.6 million shares worth N636.67 million and Transcorp transacted 19.9 million shares valued at N26.16 million.