Equities trading at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closes negative, on Thursday, to reverse the positive gain it recorded on the first trading day of the second half of the year as investors lose N115.1 billion.
The southward trade was associated with profit-taking and portfolio repositioning in anticipation of second-quarter results.
Thus, the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 1.24 per cent to close at 24,374.40, with investors shedding N159.08 billion from their net worth as market capitalization closed at N12.715 trillion.
Market breadth also closed bearish as seven gainers were recorded against 26 losers on the performance chart.
Specifically, Tier-1 banking stocks such as Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank and FBN Holdings fell by 5.73, 5.26, 1.52 and 1.92 percentiles respectively as investors booked profit. Hence, the NSE Banking index declined the most by 4.58 per cent.
Similarly, other sub-sector gauges tracked closed southwards, with the NSE Insurance, NSE Consumer Goods, NSE Oil/Gas and NSE Industrial Indices tanked by 1.02, 0.93, 0.30 and 0.02 percentiles respectively.
Activities were however higher on the back of Investors engaging in a sell-frenzy. A total of 180 million shares worth N1.847 billion were traded on Thursday, a 108.14 per cent and 301.17 per cent increase respectively from the previous trading session.
United Bank for Africa, FBN Holdings, Guaranty Trust Bank, Transcorp and Zenith Bank ended the trading day as top performers in terms of volume, while Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank, Airtel Africa, United Bank for Africa, and FBN Holdings made up the top five performers in terms of the value of units traded.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Court Threatens To Revoke Shehu Sani’s Bail
The Federal High Court, Abuja, Monday, said it would revoke the bail granted Senator Shehu Sani if he fails to appear in court on the next adjourned date for the trial of the two-count criminal charges preferred against him by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission… Read Full Story
Buhari Appoints New Chief Personal Security Officer
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Aliyu Abubakar Musa, as his Chief Personal Security Officer (CPSO). He replaces Commissioner of Police (CP) Abdulkarim Dauda, who was recently redeployed… Read Full Story
and then