Equities market shed N557bn on profit taking

The local equities market on Thursday returned to negative performance, declining by N557 billion as profit taking in highly capitalised stocks weigh down on the market.

This resulting in market capitalisation of listed equities declining by 0.52 per cent to N105.885 trillion from N106.442 trillion reported the previous day.

The NGX All Share Index also declined by 870.23 basis points to 165397.37 points from 166267.60 points recorded on Wednesday.

The decline in the shares of Nascon, Eterna Plc, Access Holdings company, Zenith Bank, NCR among others impacted negatively on the trading activities.

The market breath was negative with 39 decliners against 37 gainers, bringing the year-to-date return to 6.29 per cent 

Volume of trades declined by 57.477 million, representing 6.98 per cent as investors traded 768.26 million shares against 822.737 million shares reported the previous day. value of trades also went down by 6.98 per cent to settle at N21.19 billion in 46481 deals.

An analysis of the investment showed that four companies closed trading for the day with 10 per cent gain. Infinity Plc, JohnHolt recorded 10 per cent gain to close at N7.70 and N7.70 per unit respectively.

UhomReit and NCR also gained 10 per cent to close respectively at N64.90 and N188.15 per unit. DeapCapital followed with a gain of 9.97 per cent to close at N6.51 per unit,

Conversely, Omatek recorded the highest loss during the day, declining by 9.40 per cent to close at N2.12 per unit, international General Insurance trailed with a loss of 6.06 per cent to close at N3.10 per share, International Breweries down by 6.0 per cent to close at N14.10 per share, NEM insurance declined by 5.60 per cent to close at N32.00 per unit, Wapco fell by 5.06 per cent to close at N150.00 per unit.

Further analysis of the investment showed that Transactions in the shares of Access Holdings company led market activities with 54.275 million shares valued at N1.225 billion.

DeapCapital followed with 51.157 million shares valued at N299.547 million, Tantalizer traded 41.864 million shares worth N169.504 million, Omatek exchanged 33.521 million shares worth N77.908 million while Japaul Gold traded 31.497 million shares cost N80.085 million.