Equity market sheds N221bn on profit taking

Uzezi Samuel

The domestic equity market Monday opened week on a bearish note, shedding N221 billion following profit taking activities in AccessCorp, Zenith, GTCO, United Bank for Africa and 13 other listed companies

Market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.38 per cent to N58.276 trillion from N58.497 trillion reported on Friday.

The NGX All Share Index also depreciated by 390.44 basis points to 103047.23 points from 103437.67 points it closed on Friday.

A review of the investment showed that CWG led gainers table with 5.93 per cent to close at N7.15 per share, Wapic Insurance followed with a gain of 5.80 per cent to close at N0.73 per unit, Linkage insurance added 5.56 per cent to close at N0.95 per unit, AIICO Insurance added 4.42 per cent to close at N1.18 per unit. Veritas Kapital increased by 2.94 per cent to close at N0.70 per unit.

On the contrary, Abbey Building Society topped losers’ chart, declining by 9.75 per cent to close at N2.50 per unit, TIPs trailed with a loss of 9.64 per cent to close at N2.25 per unit, Regal Insurance we not down by 9.30 per cent to close at N0.39 per unit, Chams Plc fell by 7.21 per cent to close at N2.06 per share, Mutual Benefits dipped by 6.25 per cent to close at N0.60 per share.

Volume of trades also went down by 1.995 billion, representing 89.03 per cent as investors traded 245.856 million shares valued at N3.221 billion in 5302 deals against 2.241 million shares worth N18.729 billion exchanged hands the previous day in 8527 deals.

Abbey Building Society led market activities with 137.101 million shares valued at N342.754 million, AccessCorp followed with account of 14.279 million shares cost N323.570 million, Transcorps traded 9.305 million shares valued at N124.051 million, United Capital exchanged 6.791 million shares cost N152.939 million, GTCO Plc sold a total of 6.560 million shares worth N311.540 million.