Profit Taking: NSE Market Capitalisation Loses N268b After Easter Break

Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange opened on Tuesday after the Easter holidays on negative trend, reversing the 10-day consecutive upward movement. The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the market capitalisation depreciated by N268 billion or 2.21 per cent to close at N11.867 trillion against N12.135 trillion achieved on Thursday due to profit taking. Also, the All-Share Index lost 786.33 points or 2.20 per cent to close lower at 34,941.79 against 35,728.12 achieved on Thursday following price depreciation. Market analysts attributed the development to profit taking embarked upon by investors to take advantage of the growth recorded by equities in the last 10 days. A breakdown of the price movement chart showed that Seplat topped the losers’ chart with N43.28 to close at N400.71 per share. It was trailed by Forte Oil with N7.50 to close at N207.50, while Nigerian Breweries declined by N6.25 to close at N160 per share. Guinness lost N5.63 to close at N133.37 and Mobil dipped N5 to close at N170 per share. On the other hand, Nestle led the gainers’ table with a gain of N43.40 to close at N980 per share. Glaxosmithkline gained N5.22 to close at N56.26, while Total appreciated by N1.93 to close at N182 per share. CAP increased by N1.66 to close at N35.66 and Berger Paint garnered 92k to close at N9.98 per share. The banking stocks dominated trading activities, with Zenith Bank emerging as the most traded with 120.83 million shares worth N2.89 billion. UBA came second with 57.09 million shares valued N268.42 million, while FBN Holdings traded 55.26 million shares worth N518.66 million. Transcorp sold 52.31 million shares valued N183.77 million and Fidelity Bank accounted for 48.10 million shares worth N101.62 million. In all, investors bought and sold 581.77 million shares worth N8.31 billion exchanged in 7,587 deals. This was against 1.17 billion shares valued N18.75 billion transacted in 9,006 deals on Thursday.