The Nigerian equities market started the week on a negative note as its All Share Index (ASI) shed 0.44 per cent amid renewed profit-taking activity on Monday.
The All-Share Index (ASI) decreased by 105.76 absolute points, representing a dip of 0.44 per cent to close at 24,200.60 points.
Similarly, the overall market capitalisation size shed N56 billion to close at N12.624 trillion. Accordingly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to 1.1 per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Mobil Nigeria, MTN Nigeria Communications (MTNN), Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and Eterna.
Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 9.71 per cent, to close at N173.40, per share. Chams Plc followed with a decline of 8.33 per cent to close at 22 kobo, while Eterna shed 6.70 per cent to close at N2.09, per share.
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Wapic Insurance went down by 5.71 per cent to close at 33 kobo, while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) shed 4.62 per cent to close at 62 kobo, per share.
Meanwhile, the total volume of trades increased by 75.67 per cent to 231.235 million units, valued at N2.155 billion and exchanged in 3,950 deals. Transactions in the shares of Sterling Bank topped the activity chart with 77.546 million shares valued at N96.765 million. FCMB Group followed with 33.275 million shares worth N63.214 million, while Fidelity Bank traded 27.058 million shares valued at N48.177 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank traded 9.752 million shares valued at N215.017 million, while MTNN transacted 9.732 million shares worth N1.125 billion. Analysts at United Capital Plc expected investors to remain cautious in the equity market, as second quarter (Q2), 2020 earnings season appears on the horizon.
Afrinvest Limited analysts also expected bargain hunting activity to resurface this week given that the equities market remains fairly attractive.
Analysts at APT Securities and Funds Limited advised investors to take advantage of the bearish outlook and position for mid to long term as daily position change is not foreseen yet as market technical are down at this time.
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