By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday dipped 0.96 percent on profit-taking activities in blue-chip stocks such as lenders, Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc.
Cordros daily market update reported that at the end of today’s trading on the domestic bourse, the all-share index (ASI) closed at 23,605.89 basis points while market capitalisation decreased by N78.75 billion to N8.12 trillion, consequently increasing the Month and Year-to-Date losses to 1.30 percent and 17.58 percent respectively.
The report says that the Oil & Gas sector for the second consecutive time led the gainers list with a gain of 0.95 percent following price increases in shares of first dual listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc by 10.25 percent and oil marketer, Forte Oil Plc by 0.20 percent.
In the same vein, the Insurance index gained 0.55 percent, following price appreciation in shares of Axa Mansard Insurance Plc by 3.29 percent.
On the contrary, the Banking sector emerged the top decliner with a loss of 2.93 percent on price decrease in the shares of Zenith by 5.22 percent and GTBank by 5.13 percent.
Similarly, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices dipped by 0.83 percent and 0.47 percent respectively; coming on the losses in the shares of brewer, Nigerian Breweries Plc 6.07 percent and cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc by 0.79 percent.
At the close of the day’s business on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth posted a negative outlook, with 10 gainers and 28 losers, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics.
Seplat topped the gainers list with a gain of N21.94 per share; while Zenith declined with a loss of 0.71 kobo per share to close the session.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded increased by 319.28 percent to close at 1.32 billion shares, valued at N2.91 billion in 4, 012 total deals.
“We expect bearish trading to continue, as oil price volatility and concerns about the macroeconomy remain in focus,” the Cordros report added.
