Stock Market Down N65bn on Profit-taking in BUA Cement, Others

The profit-taking returned to the stock market of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) after six consecutive days of an uninterrupted bullish streak as capitalisation declined by N65 billion yesterday to start trading activities this week.

Investors’ profit-taking in BUA Cement Plc that depreciated by 2.78per cent drives the stock market’s weak performance, leading to NGX All Share Index (ASI) dropping by 117.89 basis points or 0.25 per cent to close at 47,436.45 basis points from 47,554.34 basis points it opened for trading.

Similarly, the market capitalisation lost N65 billion to close at N25.837 trillion from N25.90trillion it closed for trading last week.

Sectoral performance was mixed, as the Insurance Index appreciated by 1.5per cent and Oil & Gas index gained 0.1 per cent, while the Industrial Goods Index dropped by 1.3per cent and Banking index depreciated by 0.2per cent as Consumer Goods index closed flat.

Meanwhile, market breadth closed negative, with 15 gainers versus 17 losers. Prestige Assurance recorded the highest price gain of 9.30 per cent to close at 47 kobo, per share. NEM Insurance followed with a gain 9.22 per cent to close at N4.50, while Courteville Business Solutions rose 8.70 per cent to close at 50 kobo, per share.

Thomas Wyatt Nigeria went up by 8.33 per cent to close at 39 kobo, while unity Bank appreciated by 7.55 per cent to close at 57 kobo, per share.

On the other hand, Beta Glass led the losers’ chart by 9.90 per cent to close at N39.60, per share, per share. McNichols Plc followed with a decline of 9.68 per cent each to close at 56 kobo, while SCOA Nigeria lost 9.40 per cent to close at N1.06, per share.

Jaiz Bank lost 6.82 per cent to close at 82 kobo, while Wapic Insurance shed 5.71 per cent to close at 33 kobo, per share.

The total volume traded rose by 182.15 per cent to 279.283 million units, valued at N1.563 billion, and exchanged in 3,781 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Regency Alliance Insurance topped the activity chart with 97.635 million shares valued at N23.434 million. Jaiz Bank followed with 65.421 million shares worth N53.673 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 22.926 million shares valued at N167.354 million.

Fidelity Bank traded 12.420 million shares valued at N50.930 million, while FBN Holdings transacted 10.292 million shares worth N112.343 million.

This week, United Capital Plc expected the impact of the recent 100basis points Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) hike to surface in the local bourse, as investors will look to book profits from the recent rally.