Domestic equities shed N197bn on profit taking 

Trading activities on the floor of Nigerian Exchange on Monday closed lower, depreciating by N197 billion, as investors returned to profit taking activities.

This resulted in market capitalization of listed equities declining by 0.22 per cent to N91.089 trillion from N91.286 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also declined by 310.20 basis points to 143210.33 points from 143520.53 points it closed on Friday.

The market breath was negative with 18 advancers against 26 decliners, bringing year to date return to 39.14 per cent.

An analysis of the investment showed that NCR led gainers table with 9.97 per cent to close at N60.10 per unit, SunuAssurance followed with a gain of 9.18 per cent to close at N4.28 per unit, Champion Breweries added 8.11 per cent to close at N14.00, Mecure gained 7.58 per cent to N29.80 per share, Guinea Insurance gained 7.27 per cent to close at N1.18 per unit.

Conversely, International Breweries topped losers’ chart, declining by 10 per cent to close at N10.35 per unit, RTBriscoe trailed with a loss 9.88 per cent to close at N3.10 per share, Cornerstone Insurance dipped by 7.83 per cent to close at N5.53 per unit, Daar Communications declined by 6.52 per cent to close at N50.80 per share. Legal Insurance dipped by 4.81 per cent to close at N0.99 per unit.

Volume of trades declined by 360.0 million, representing 19.72 per cent as investors traded 1.466 billion Units of shares against 1.826 billion reported the previous day. Value of transactions also went down by 6.82 per cent to settle at N18.665 billion.

Trading in the shares of 908.817 million shares valued at N4.590 billion, Wema Bank followed with 113.254 million shares cost N2.071 billion, Access Holdings company traded 93.915 million shares worth N1.972 billion, Fidelity Bank exchanged 59.873 million cost N1.138 billion, Zenith Bank traded 25.019 million shares valued at N1.501 billion.