Equity market kicks-off new week on negative zone

The equity market on Monday shed 0.06 per cent to kicked off the last week in November 2016 on a negative note as investors continued profit-taking in highly capitalized stocks.

Stock Exchange lead indicator, the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 14.98 basis points, representing a decline of 0.06 per cent from 25,333.39 basis points market opened on Monday to close at 25,318.41 basis points.

Similarly, the Market Capitalization shed N5.16 billion, representing a dip of 0.06 per cent to close at N8.72 trillion from N8.20 trillion it opened for transactions on Monday.

The downturn was largely boosted by value depreciation recorded in some medium and large capitalized stocks, amongst which are; Forte Oil Plc, Access Bank plc, Zenith Bank Plc, Stanbic-IBTC and Total Nigeria.

Forte Oil and UACN led the day’s twenty-two retreating stocks, with a five per cent decline in share price to close at N59.66 and N16.15 per share respectively

It was followed by UAC- Property that dropped by 4.86 per cent to close at N2.35 while share price of Africa Prudential Registrars lost 4.79 per cent to close at N2.78.

Axamansard Insurance closed the day at N1.80 per share following a depreciation of 4.76 per cent.

Conversely, Mobil led the day’s eight appreciating stocks with a 5 percent appreciation to close at N219.41 per share. Eterna Oil followed with a 4.56 percent growth to close at N2.98 per share, while Fidson Healthcare Pharmaceuticals recorded a gain of 4.29 percent to close at N1.46 per share.

Fidelity Bank recorded a 3.80 percent growth to close at 82 kobo per share and Eco Transnational Incorporated added 3.16 percent to close at N9.80 per share.

Market performance as measured by volume of shares traded, however, appreciated by 40.4 percent to settle at 202.4 million units. The shares traded in 2,558 deals were valued at N1.616 billion compared to 144.2 million units valued at N2.143 billion and exchanged in 2,459 deals recorded in previous session.

Wema Bank emerged the most traded stock for the day with 75.4 million shares valued at N39.2 million, Access Bank followed with 22.9 million units of shares worth N131.6 million while Zenith Bank came third with the sale of 14.8 million shares worth N199.7 million.

FCMB traded 14.3 million shares worth N15.1 million and FBN Holdings sold approximately 13.5 million shares at N41.3 million.