Equities market dips by 0.17%

Following profit-taking in Diamond Bank Plc, Julius Berger Plc, among other shares, The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (NSE ASI) on Thursday dropped by 0.17 per cent to indicate a three-day consecutive loss by investors.

Within four trading days- Monday to Thursday, investors in the equities market of the NSE have lost N59.3 billion or 0.65 per cent of their investment.

Specifically, market capitalization which opened on Monday at N9.074 trillion closed on Thursday at N9.015 trillion.

The market’s performance on Thursday shows that the All Share Index dropped by 0.17 and closed at 26,201.60 basis points compared to previous closing figure of 26,245.34 basis points.

Market activity measured by volume and value traded closed mixed as investors exchanged 196.5 million units of shares, 50 per cent lower than 394.8 million units traded previously. Value of equities traded however rose by 89.5 per cent as investors moved equities worth N2.611 billion on the day.

The day’s transactions were carried out in 3,317 deals, 10 per cent higher than previous session’s 3,015 deals

Consequently, market breadth closed flat at 19 gainers against 19 losers

Diamond Bank led the day’s declining stocks, with 8.40 percent to close at N1.09, Berger paints dropped 5.00 per cent to close at N6.08, Vitafoam depreciated 4.62 per cent to close at N2.27 and Transcorp dropped 3.45 percent to close at 84 kobo.

On the flip side, UAC-Prop led on the gainers table by 4.96 percent to close at N2.75, Cutix followed with an increase of 4.83 percent to close at N1.52, Continental Reinsurance added 4.46 percent to close at N1.17, Dangote Sugar grew 4.44 percent to close at N6.35, and ETI appreciated 4.23 percent to close at N10.10.

Access Bank topped the activity chart for the day, with the sale of 31.99 million units of shares worth N224.1 billion. Damond Bank followed with 28.4 million shares worth N31.5 million, while UCAP emerged the third most traded stock for the day with 24.1 million shares amounting to N80.9 million.

Okomuoil came fourth having traded 19.7 million units of shares valued at N869.4 million while Transcorp was fifth with 11.9 million shares worth N10.2 million.