Local stock market opens week weaker by 0.3 per cent

Profit-taking on some high cap stocks drives trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to a negative week opening as the benchmark index sheds 0.27 per cent on Monday.

Specifically, the All-Share Index (ASI) closed the day trading at 28,337.49 basis points as against an opening mark of 28,415.31 basis points, while market capitalisation gains N40.7 billion to close at N14.811 trillion.

Accordingly, Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) gains both reduced to 5.6 per cent on losses recorded on BUA Cements and MTN Nigeria by 1.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively.

Market sentiment, as measured by the market breadth, was negative as 16 stocks lost, relative to 13 gainers.

International Breweries and Mansard Insurance recorded the largest losses of the day, depreciating by 9.1 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively, while Eterna Oil and Union Diagnostistics topped the gainers’ list, having appreciated by 9.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

The sectoral performance was broadly negative, following losses in the Insurance, Consumer Goods, Industrial Goods and Banking indices. The Oil & Gas index was the sole gainer of the day, appreciating by 1.4 per cent.

Activities at the local bourse were tepid as the total volume traded declined by 3.9 per cent to 369.18 million units, valued at N5.06 billion and exchanged in 4,750 deals.

United Bank for Africa was the most traded stock by volume at 95.05 million units while Guaranty Trust Bank was the most traded stock by value at N1.99 billion.

[BREAKING] #EndSARS: IGP Disbands SARS Across The 36 States

In the finest spirit of democracy and response to the people’s yearnings, the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu has today, 11th October, 2020, dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) across the 36 State Police Commands and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where they hitherto existed.