Profit taking: NSE All-Share Index down by 0.47%

Trading in the domestic bourse closed lower on Wednesday, dropping 0.47 per cent, amid profit taking in some heavyweight stocks.

Specifically, the All-Share Index lost 120.11 points or 0.47 per cent to close at 25,215.04 compared with 25,335.15 posted on Tuesday.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date returned negative at -0.2 per cent, while the Year-to-Date loss increased to -6.1 per cent.

Also, the market capitalization, which opened at N13.216 trillion, shed N63 billion to close at N13.153 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are: BUA Cement, UACN, CI Leasing, Guinness and Zenith Bank.

Analysts at Afrinvest Ltd., said, “We expect profit taking activities to drag the performance of the equities market for the rest of the week.”

Consequently, the market breadth closed the same proportion with 19 gainers and 19 losers.

C & I Leasing led the laggards’ chart in percentage terms, declining by 9.43 per cent, to close at N4.80, per share.

UACN came second with 9.09 per cent to close at N7.50, while Japaul Oil lost eight per cent to close at 23k, per share.

Red Star Express dropped 7.30 per cent to close at N3.30, while Cutix shed 5.33 per cent to close at N1.60, per share.

Conversely, Berger Paints and Prestige Assurance dominated the gainers’ table in percentage terms, gaining 10 per cent each to close at N7.70 and 77k per share, respectively.

Neimeth trailed with 9.86 per cent to close at N5.80, while Mutual Benefits Assurance and Royal Exchange rose by 9.09 per cent each to close at 24k per share each.

UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust garnered 8.57 per cent to close at N3.80, while Cornerstone Insurance rose by eight per cent to close at 54k, per share.

The total volume of transacted decreased marginally by 0.8 per cent with an exchange of 266.65 million shares, valued at N3.18 billion achieved in 3,978 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with 69.41 million shares valued at N1.68 billion.

Mutual Benefits Assurance followed with 51.76 million shares worth N12.39 million, while FBN Holdings accounted for 31.21 million shares valued at N167.67 million.

Japaul Oil sold 18.74 million shares worth N4.31 million, while Zenith Bank transacted 16.44 million shares worth N274.86 million. (NAN)