LAGOS (The Southern African Times) – The Nigerian local stork market starts the week’s trading with negative sentiments as profit-taking activities witnessed in BUA Cement and United Bank for Africa undermined the market’s performance.
Thus, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) declined by 0.3 per cent to 38,864.33 basis points.
Accordingly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to -0.9 per cent and -3.5 per cent, respectively.
Owing to the unimpressive trade outing, equities investors shed N51.1 billion as the market capitalization settled at N20.25 trillion as against an opening balance of N20.30 trillion.
As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was however positive as 19 tickers gained, relative to 12 losers.
On the performance chart, University Print Limited and Transcorp Hotel topped the gainers’ list having appreciated in stock value by 9.8 per cent and 9.7 per cent while Mansard Insurance and Chams recorded the most significant losses of the day after their respective shares shed 9.9 per cent and 4.4 per cent.
Analyses per sector indicated that the Oil & Gas, Banking, and Consumer Goods indices gained 1.2 per cent, 0.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, while the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices declined by 2.3 per cent and 1.1 per cent.
Activities at the local bourse on Monday was however unimpressive as the total volume of trades decreased by 78.0 per cent to 139.45 million units, valued at N1.71 billion, and exchanged in 3,539 deals. Sovereign Insurance was the most traded stock by volume at 19.08 million units, while MTN Nigeria was the most traded stock by value at N465.05 million.
