Profit-taking by investors has dragged the market capitalisation to a loss of N296bn at the close of trading on Thursday.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index dropped by 539.48 basis points to 70,042.28 after crossing a historic high of 70,000 points on Wednesday. The market cap stood at N38.481tn.
The drop in the major indices of the market followed three days of positive trading sessions and over N1tn gain for investors.
Profit-taking activities by investors were majorly in stocks of Chams, Thomas Wyatt, FBN Holdings, NAHCO, AccessCorp, MTN Nigeria and others.
Based on market breadth, investors’ sentiments were negative as 28 stocks depreciated against 26 gainers.
The gainers’ chart was led by stocks of Omatek, Academy Press, and Prestige with 10.0 per cent, 9.83 per cent and 9.76 per cent gains respectively and the losers’ chart was led by Chams (-9.84 per cent), International Breweries (- 8.79 per cent), RTBriscoe (-8.51 per cent), Thomas Wyatt (-8.42 per cent), and FBNH (-8.14 per cent) loss respectively.
The volume and value drivers of the day’s trend were led majorly by stocks of JapaulGold, Fidelity Bank, United Bank for Africa, MTN Nigeria and Zenith Bank.
Transaction volume declined from 601.73 million to 525.46 million trades valued at N6.1bn executed in 8,396 deals. The number of stocks that traded on Thursday stood at 122.
Across various sectors, negative sentiments prevailed, with three out of five tracked sectors closing in the red and one sector remaining flat.
The insurance sector experienced gains, rising by 1.56 per cent. The banking, industrial, and consumer goods indexes suffered the most significant setbacks, declining by 0.85 per cent, 0.65 per cent, and 0.19 per cent, respectively, while the oil & gas index remained unchanged.
SOURCE: PUNCHNG
