Capital Market

Equities Continues Southward Trend, as Year-to-Date Losses Hit 14.40%

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By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian equities market on Wednesday continued its southward trend as profit taking in the Banking and Industrial stocks has led the local bourse to extend its Month-to-Date (M-t-D) and Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) losses to 4.97 percent and 14.40 percent respectively.

Cordros daily market update says at the close of today’s trading the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) all-share index (ASI) declined by 1.30 percent to close at 29,667.24  basis points, while market capitalisation went down by N134.43 billion to close at N10.2 trillion.

According to the report, only one (1) of the five (5) sector indices gained. It affirmed the Banking index dipped by 1.64 percent to lead the losers table following losses in the shares of lenders Unity Bank Plc by 8.98 percent, United Bank for Africa Plc 5.00 percent and Access Bank Plc with a loss of 4.94 percent.

The Cordros report further affirmed that depreciation in shares of cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc by 2.44 percent and paint maker, Portland Paints Nigeria Plc by 4.85 percent led the Industrial index to a 1.08 percent loss.

In addition, the Oil/Gas and Consumer Goods also dipped 0.66 percent and 0.57 percent. The Insurance index gained 0.24 percent in today’s session bucking the trend, following gains in shares of insurers, Nem Insurance Plc with 4.62 percent, African Prudential Insurance Plc and AIICO Insurance Plc with 1.53 percent and 1.12 percent gains respectively.

At the close of business on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth worsened recording 19 gainers and 27 losers, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics.

Okomu Oil Plam Plc emerged top gainer with a gain of N3.00 per share; while Unity Bank topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.15 kobo per share to close the day.

In terms of turnover, volume traded at the close of business on the Nigerian equities market increased by 29.27 percent to 160.61 million shares, valued at N1.65 billion traded in 3,267 deals.

“We expect investors to continue to book profits,” the Cordros update added.

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