Profit taking dips market by 0.5% as equities investors lose N289bn

The local bourse opened the week’s trading on a bearish note as profit-taking activities in Dangote Sugar and Transnational Corporation undermined market performance as these high capitalised stocks depreciated in prices by 10.0 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively.

At the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), the trade was nudged slightly lower as the benchmark Index shed 0.49 percent to settle at 104,136.35 basis points.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +4.2 percent and +39.3 percent, respectively.

Equities Investors, therefore lost N288.93 billion from their overall investment as the market capitalization settled at N58.88 trillion by the end of trading activities on Monday.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 28 tickers lost relative to 20 gainers.

On the performance board, Dangote Sugar and International Energy Insurance topped the losers’ list after their share value dipped by 10.0 percent, respectively, while Ellah Lakes and Morison Industries recorded the most significant gains of the day having appreciated in share value by 10.0 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively.

Across the sectors, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices declined by 1.7 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively; while the Insurance index advanced by 0.2 percent. The Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices closed flat.

Analysis of market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 20.04 percent .

A total of 306.82 billion shares valued at N11.38 billion were exchanged in 9,343 deals. Jaiz Bank led the volume chart with 23.16 million units traded while MTN Nigeria Communication led the value chart  in deals worth N2.61 billion.

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