Domestic equities dips by N1.306trn

Agency Report

The Nigerian equities market on Wednesday closed lower for the third straight session, declining by N1.306 trillion, weigh down by broad based profit taking in medium and heavyweight stocks.

This resulting in market capitalization of listed equities declining by 1.35 per cent to N95.664 trillion from N96.970 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 2,055.73 basis points to 150573.87 points from 152629.60 points it closed on Tuesday.

The negative performance during the day was driven by profit taking activities in the medium and large stocks such as Betaglass, MTN Nigeria, SkyAVN, UACN, Zenith Bank, Transcorp, FCMB group and among others.

The market breath was negative with 15 gainers against 46 decliners, bringing the year-to-date return to 46.52 per cent.

The volume of trades increased by 433.08 million, representing 63.32 per cent as investors traded 1.117 billion shares against 683.920 million units traded the previous day. Value of transactions also grew by 46.16 per cent to settle at N29.780 billion against N20.375 billion in 27303 deals.

An analysis of the trading for the day showed that NCR led gainers table with 10 per cent to close at N17.60 per unit, Legend Internet followed with a gain of 9.16 per cent to close at N5.84 per share, Cornerstone Insurance gained 8.80 per cent to close at N6.18 per unit, UPDC added 8.30 per cent to close at N6.00 while Linkage Assurance up by 8.11 per cent to close at N2.00 per share.

On the contrary, C&I Leasing and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria TransCorp) topped losers chart, dropping by 10 per cent each to close at N5.58 and N45.00 per unit.Skyavn trailed with a loss of 9.99 per cent to N80.60 per share, Betaglass down by 9.99 per cent to N393.70 per share, RTBriscoe fell by 9.92 per cent to close at N3.18 per share.

Trading in the shares of Fidelity Bank led market activities with 608.164 million shares valued at N13.954 billion, Sterling Bank followed with account of 81.659 million shares worth N628.473 million, Zenith Bank traded 53.667 million shares cost N3.280 billion, FCMB group exchanged 40.404 million shares valued at N423.166 million while Access Holdings company traded 39.421 million shares valued at N915.461 million.