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Equities lose N235bn to profit-taking

By on May 17, 2017

The Nigerian equities market yesterday ran bearish to a tune of N235 billion after many stocks witnessed profit-taking by investors, which was triggered by the recent bullish market trend.

The profit-taking trend commenced on Friday when the capitalisation of the equities market shed N80bn, which was though overshadowed by the positive collective performance of the week.

Closing yesterday, the market depreciated by 2.41 per cent as market capitalisation shrank by N235 billion to close at N9.511 trillion while the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) lost 678.77 points to close at 27,513.69 basis points.

Stockbrokers described the decline as an expected situation, explaining that significant profit would always motivate profit-taking by some investors, while some others, as a result of the same factor, may prefer to sell their shares at such a bullish point.

Mr. Bayo Adejumo, a stockbroker and financial market expert, also attributed the loss to investors’ uncertainty on the decision of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on a proposed removal of equities index, which the NSE stakeholders deliberated on yesterday.

“Investors were being meticulous, waiting for the outcome of the decision of the NSE on the removal of equities index and by tomorrow (today), they must have known the direction on the issue,” he explained.

Meanwhile, all other market metrics equally ran bearish to close the session.

Market breadth closed negative with 41 declining stocks against 10 gainers and 12 others that closed on flat prices.

The turnover for session also depreciated compared to the previous session with volume and value traded declining by 36 per cent and 13.92 per cent respectively.

Dangote Cement Plc led the gainers’ with N6.51k profit to close at N163.01k per share; PRESCO Plc rose by N2 and Stanbic IBTC gained 50k to close at N49 and N26.50k per share respectively.

Conversely, Nestle Nigeria Plc shed N37 to close at N798 per share and was followed by SEPLAT Plc, losing N20 to close at N380 per share and the Nigerian Breweries closing the session at N141.67k after falling by N7.33k per share.

Investors staked N7.912bn on 670.97m shares in 4,034 trades in the session as against N9.191bn spent.

[DailyTrust]