January 23, 2018

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market indicators on Tuesday dropped further by 1.16 per cent due to market volatility caused by profit taking.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that market capitalisation shed N187 billion or 1.16 per cent to close at N15.902 trillion compared with N16.089 trillion on Monday.

The All-Share Index lost 522.68 points or 1.16 per cent to close at 44,389.85 against 44,912.53 achieved on Monday.

Mr Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Operating Officer, InvestData Ltd., attributed the development to profit taking embarked by some investors ahead of 2017 earnings season.

Omordion said that some investors were taking adavantage of 18 per cent growth posted by the market in the past three weeks.

NAN reports that Mobil Oil recorded the highest loss, declining by N7 to close at N209 per share.

Dangote Cement trailed with a loss of N4 to close at N269, while Julius Berger was down by N1.60 to close N30.40 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank shed N1.51 to close at N52, while Zenith International Bank dropped by 75k to close at N32 per share.

On the other hand, Seplat topped the gainers’ table, increasing by N9.99 to close at N685 per share.

Unilever followed with a gain of N2.21 to close at N46.41, while Nigerian Breweries gained N2 to close at N145 per share.

Presco appreciated by N1.31 to close at N70, while Nestle added N1.11 to close at N1,471.11 per share.

A breakdown of the activity chart showed that Skye Bank was the toast of investors trading 150.37 million shares worth N226.77 million.

FBN Holdings followed with an account of 104.17 million shares valued at N1.36 billion, while Wema Bank traded 64.09 million shares worth N87.36 million.

Diamond Bank sold 44.39 million shares valued at N144.80 million, while Transcorp exchanged 43.39 million shares worth N94.28 million.

In all, the volume of shares traded closed lower with an exchange of 737.86 million shares valued at N7.67 billion traded in 8,927 deals.

This was against the 4.44 billion shares worth N15.93 billion shares exchanged in 8,572 deals on Monday.