Profit taking dominates trading on NSE

Trading activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange resumed for the week on Monday on a negative trend with market indices dropping by 0.45 per cent due to sell pressure, halting a seven-day consecutive upward movement.

The All-Share Index dipped 120.54 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 26,586.56 against 26,707.10 recorded on Friday.

Also, the market capitalisation shed N42bn or 0.46 per cent to close at N9.147tn compared with N9.189tn achieved on Friday.

Seplat recorded the highest price loss to lead the losers’ table, dropping by N20 to close at N390 per share.

Forte Oil lost N11.33 to close at N104.91 and MRS shed N2.27 to close at N43.24 per share.

Unilever dipped N1.97 to close at N37.60 and ETI was down by 0.59k to close at N11.45 per share.

Market watchers attributed the development to investors’ disposition for profit to prepare for Yuletide.

They noted that the market would likely be dominated with profit taking throughout this week in preparation for the festive period.

On the other hand, Guinness led the gainers’ chart with a gain of N7.40 to close at N85 per share.

It was trailed by Total, having gained N2.87 to close at N280, and Julius Berger garnered N1.75 to close at N36.75 per share.

Dangote Sugar inched 0.25k to close at N6.35, while NASCON increased by 0.22k to close at N7.22 per share.

Also, the volume of shares traded closed lower as investors bought and sold 262.89 million shares valued at N1.75 billion transacted in 2,789 deals.

This was against a total of 874.34 million shares worth N4.39bn traded in 3,387 deals on Friday.

NASCON emerged the most traded, accounting for73.58 million shares valued at N531.06 million.

UBA sold 58.86 million shares worth N263.49m and Diamond Bank accounted for 32.12 million shares valued at N27.69m.

Zenith Bank traded N18.82m worth N270.99m and investors staked N41.32m on 11.84 million shares of FBN Holdings.

(NAN)