By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- The Nigerian equities market on Monday opened the week on a bearish note, following profit-taking across major counters; with the benchmark index down 2.64 percent close at 29,840.23 points, while market capitalisation fell by N278.00 billion to N10.25 trillion.
“Today’s activities pared the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date gains to 7.87 percent and 4.18 percent respectively,” Cordros daily market update affirmed.
According to the update, the Banking, Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices plunged by 4.08 percent, 0.58 percent and 3.56 percent apiece, on the back of selloffs in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lenders, Zenith Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc by 6.12 percent and 4.76 percent respectively, while Nigeria’s brewing giants, Guinness Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Breweries Plc lost 1.70 percent and 0.69 percent each. First dual listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc declined by 4.98 percent to weigh down the Oil & Gas index.
Similarly, Cordros reports the Industrial Goods index dipped by 2.46 percent, following a price decline in the shares of cement producer and Nigeria’s most capitalised listed company, Dangote Cement Plc by 4.04 percent.
On the positive side, the Insurance index gained marginally by 0.31 percent, driven by gains in the shares of reinsurer, Continental Reinsurance Plc with a gain of 2.68 percent and insurer, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc with a gain of 0.78 percent.
At the close of the session, market breadth posted a negative outlook with 16 gainers and 40 losers posted, according to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) daily market statistics. Drugmaker, Fidson Healthcare Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.22 kobo per share; while financial and investment services firm, United Capital Plc topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.20 kobo per share to close the day’s business.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian Equities Market dropped by 15.59 percent to 375.22 million shares, valued at N4.03 billion, and traded in 4,229 deals.
“We expect profit-taking to persist in the coming session,” Cordros update affirmed.
