Profit Taking Halts Stock Market’s Positive Momentum

After four days of consistent gains, the Nigerian equities market retreated southward at the close of business yesterday as anxious investors run to take profit.

Although opening in the positive, the benchmark index dived northward depressed by heavy weights such as Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc and Forte Oil Plc.

At the close of business, the benchmark index declined by 1.17 per cent to close at 29,870.86 points as against 1.82 per cent appreciation recorded the previous day. In the same vein, the market capitalization of the 188 listed equities went down by 1.18 per cent to close at N10,272.76 trillion. As a result of yesterday’s gain, the Year-to-Date (YTD) return now stands at -13.81.

Also, activity level trimmed as both volume and value of trades declined by 53.1 per cent and 39.4 per cent respectively. In yesterday’s session, a total of 439 million units of shares valued at N4.53 billion were consummated.

The banking sector of the financial service sector remained the most active in terms of the number of shares traded. It led the equities sector with a total of 164.05 million ordinary shares valued at N871.61 million executed in 1,266 deals.

The volume of shares sold in the banking sector was largely driven by the activity in the shares of United Bank for Africa Plc, Skye Bank Plc, Access Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. Trading on the shares of the four banks accounted for 137.2 million shares or 83.4 per cent of the subsectors turnover

Sectoral analysis showed that the Oil & Gas tracker led the declined by 4.00 per cent. In the same manner, banking stocks depressed the financial tracker into its -1.67 per cent close. The Consumers and Industrials also closed in the red as Nigeria Breweries Plc (-1.65%) and WAPCO Plc (-1.94%) lost momentum.

At the end of today’s trading, 12 stocks appreciated in value while 37 stocks depreciated in value and 46 stocks remain unchanged, making a total of 95 stocks that were actively transacted in today’s trading.