Stock Market Down 0.02% on Profit-taking in Geregu, 9 Others

Kayode Tokede

Trading activities on the stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) yesterday slipped by 0.02 per cent to close at 47,524.38 basis points over investors’ profit-taking in Geregu Plc, nine other stocks.

Consequently, the market capitalisation lost N5.18billion to close at N25.88trillion as the stock market witnessed negative sentiment trading by investors.

As a result, the NGX All-Share Index in its Month-to-Date loss increased to -3.1 per cent, while Year-to-Date (YTD) return fell to 11.26per cent.

Analysing sectoral performance, the Banking Index appreciated by 0.9per cent and the Insurance index gained 0.2per cent, while the Consumer Goods index was down by 0.7per cent and Oil & Gas depreciated by 0.7per cent as the Industrial Goods index closed flat.

The stock market performance was negative as the losses recorded in UAC Nigeria, followed by Geregu Power led to top losers.

UACN depreciated by 9.76per cent to close at N9.25 per share, while Geregu Power was down by 9.02 per cent to close at N110 per share.

Lasaco Assurance was down by 6.67 per cent to close at N0.84 per share as  Cornerstone dipped by 5.45 per cent to N0.52 per share. In addition to top five losers was Champion breweries that depreciated by 3.33 per cent to N3.48 per share.

On the gainers chart was Honeywell Flours that gained 9.79 per cent to close at N2.13 per share, while Neimeth appreciated by 9.52 per cent to N1.38 per share. Fidson rose by 7.88 per cent to close at N9.17 per share, while Chams gained 7.89 per cent to close at N0.28 per share.

Analysis of yesterday’s market activities showed that trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions decreasing by 42.83per cent.

A total of 86.55million units of shares valued at N2.09billionn were exchanged in 3,264 deals. Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) gained 0.59per cent led the volume chart with 19.15million units traded while Airtel Africa was the most trade by value in deals worth N923.22million.

Analysts at InvestmentOne Research said, “The equities market closed southwards today due to the losses recorded across the Oil/Gas and Consumer Goods sectors.

“Going forward, we expect investors’ sentiments to be swayed by the search for real positive returns and developments in the interest rate space.

“We reiterate that this may be a great period to pick up some quality names with a medium to long-term investment horizon.”