By Helen Oji
Barely 24 hours after experiencing its highest climb in many months to N15 trillion mark on Tuesday, renewed profit-taking by investors at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), made the bears regain
control on equity transactions, thereby reversing the 14 days of consecutive bull runs as market capitalisation shed N143 billion.Yesterday, the All Share Index (ASI), fell by 275.02 points or 0.95 per cent to 28,634.35 points. Accordingly, investors lost N143 billion in value as market capitalisation declined to N14.967 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capital stocks, including MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN), Unilever Nigeria, Zenith Bank, Guinness Nigeria, and Lafarge Africa.
Analysts attributed the profit-taking activities to investors selling part of their holdings in blue-chip stocks to book profit amid the recent rise in price.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited, said: “We expect bargain hunting in the next trading session to be driven by high liquidity and lower yields in the fixed income market amid the anticipation of third quarter (Q3), 2020 corporate earnings release.
Also, market breadth closed negative, with 21 gainers versus 31 losers. Berger Paints Nigeria recorded the highest price gain of 9.84 per cent to close at N6.70 per share.
Linkage Assurance followed with 9.76 per cent to close at 45 kobo, while NASCON Allied Industries (NASCON) advanced 9.59 per cent to close at N12, per share.
Mutual Benefits Assurance gained 9.52 per cent to close at 23 kobo, and Chemical and Allied Products (CAP) rose 9.36 per cent to close at N18.70, per share.
On the other hand, Unilever Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 9.89 per cent to close at N12.30 per share.
Cornerstone Insurance followed with a 9.09 per cent fall to close at 60
kobo, while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated slipped 8.89 per cent to
close at N4.10, per share.
UACN Property Development Company shed 8.14 per cent to close at 79
kobo, and Custodian Investment declined by 7.21 per cent to close at
N5.15, per share.
However, total volume of trades increased by 11.13 per cent to 832.879
million units, valued at N9.539 billion, exchanged in 9,180 deals.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 128.790 million shares valued at N789.807 million.
Zenith Bank followed with 120.623 million shares worth N2.441 billion,
while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 83.978 million shares valued
at N577.159 million.
Access Bank traded 78.934 million shares at N603.285 million, and
Guaranty Trust Bank sold 76.156 million shares worth N2.412 billion.
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