NSE market indices sustain negative posture, down 0.75%

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market indices sustained negative posture on Wednesday, dropping further by 0.75 per cent due to profit taking.

Superficially, the All Share Index lost 220.65 points or 0.75 per cent to close at 29,062.50 compared with 29,283.15 posted on Tuesday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N15.106 trillion dipped N114 billion or 0.75 per cent to close at N14.992 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses achieved in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which were; MTN Nigeria, BUA Cement, Ecobank Transnational, UACN and Dangote Sugar.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited stated: “Although yesterday’s performance was negative, we expect a better performance in successive sessions due to bargain hunting.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that market breadth closed negative, with 11 gainers and 17 losers.

Livestock Feeds and Sovereign Trust Insurance led the losers’ chart in percentage terms, losing 9.09 per cent each, to close at 50k and 20k per share respectively.

DN Meyer followed with a decline of eight per cent to close at 46k per share.

ETI dropped 7.69 per cent to close at N7.20, while Fidson shed 5.45 per cent to close at N2.60 per share.

Conversely, Beta Glass recorded the highest price gain to lead the gainers’ chart in percentage terms, increasing 10 per cent to close at N64.90 per share.

Cornerstone Insurance trailed with a gain 9.43 per cent to close at 58k, while Glaxo SmithKline appreciated by 7.14 per cent to close at N6.00 per share.

Forte Oil increased by 6.44 per cent to close at N19, while Transcorp rose by 4.85 per cent to close at N1.08 per share.

An analysis of the activity chart indicates that transactions in the shares of Morison Industries topped the activity chart with 126.77 million shares valued  N57.05 million.

Access Bank followed with 52.47 million shares worth N536.58 million, while United Bank for Africa traded 31.97 million shares valued at N274.10 million.

Zenith Bank sold 31.55 million shares worth N674.03 million, while Transcorp transacted 17.86 million shares valued N19.01 million.

Consequently, the total volume traded decreased by 46 per cent as investors bought and sold 360.08 million shares worth N2.83 billion traded in 4,345 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 666.78 million shares valued at N6.52 billion in 5,711 deals on Tuesday.(NAN)