Midweek, equity investors on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) lost more than N26 billion as the stock market flipped owing to profit-taking in the consumer goods and banking sectors.
Following a strong start to the day, the Nigerian Exchange saw late profit-taking on DANGSUGAR (-4.8%) and GTCO (-1.8%). Dangote Sugar’s selling rallies disrupted days of purchasing momentum that greeted the company’s merger deal with NASCON and Dangote Rice Limited.
As a result, the year-to-date return has slowed to 33.24%, still well ahead of the annual inflation rate of 24.08%. The Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index declined 48.40 basis points today, or -0.07%, to settle at 68,286.28.
According to stockbrokers, market activity was down today, with total volume and total value traded for the day falling by -32.12% and -46.30%, respectively. Atlass Portfolios Limited said in its market update that 378.65 million units worth $5,482.94 million were moved in 7,671 transactions.
OANDO was the most traded stock by volume, contributing for 22.07% of total transaction activity. The oil business was followed on the volume chart by UBA (9.41%), TRANSCORP (7.04%), ACCESSCORP (4.90%), and OMATEK (4.16%).
Ticker: DANGCEM was the most traded stock in terms of value, accounting for 12.93% of all transactions on the exchange. GUINEAINS led the advancers’ leaderboard with a price increase of 10%, trailed by BETAGLAS (9.91%), CAVERTON (+9.84%), OANDO (+9.70%), CWG (+9.09%), and twenty-seven others.
Twenty stocks depreciated, where VITAFOAM was the top loser, with a price depreciation of -10.00%, to close at ₦22.50. VERITASKAP (-7.69%), DANGSUGAR (-4.79%), INTBREW (-4.35%), GTCO (-1.77%), and UNITYBNK (-1.54%) also dipped in price.
Despite the profit-taking activities that spooked the exchange, market breadth closed positive, recording 32 gainers and 20 losers.
In addition, the market sector performance closed positive, as three of the five major market sectors were up. The Insurance sector (+0.43%) was followed by the Banking sector (+0.27%), and the Industrial sector (+0.17), while the Consumer goods sector was down by -0.82%. The Oil and gas closed unchanged.
Overall, equities market capitalisation lost ₦26.48 billion, representing a decline of -0.07%, to close at ₦37,373.578 trillion from ₦37,400.05 yesterday.
