Nigeria’s stock market closed negative (-0.37percent) on Wednesday, thereby reversing the previous day’s record gains.
This southward close was fueled by investors’ decisions to take profit in stocks like Total Nigeria Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc, GTBank Plc and that of PZ Cussons Plc.
The value of listed equities stood at N12.821trillion from a preceding day high of N12.878trillion, representing a decline of N57billion.
“The performance of the ASI can be largely attributed to the decline in market heavyweight (Dangote Cement) as well as profit taking by investors in some of the counter that rallied in recent session.
“However, with an increase in transaction sizes in recent sessions and continued buy interest in banking stocks, we expect the ASI to return to the positive side on Thursday in the absence of sell offs in heavyweight stocks”, said market analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities.
The NSE All Share Index (NSE) which opened at 26,456.39 points decreased to 26,339.11 points at the sound of the trade closing gong. In 5,031 deals, equity dealers exchanged 610,575,893 units valued at N11.104billion.
Total Nigeria Plc led the losers table after its share price declined from N123.2 to N110.9, losing N12.3 or 9.98percent, followed by Dangote Cement Plc which dropped from N147.2 to N145, after losing N2.2 or 1.49percent. Unilever dropped from N19.6 to N18.5, down by N1.1 or 5.61percent, GTBank declined from N28.7 to N28, losing 70kobo or 2.44percent, while PZ Cussons Plc was also down from N5.55 to N5, losing 55kobo or 9.91percent.
Meanwhile, Zenith Bank Plc rallied most after its share price moved from N17.4 to N17.8, adding 40kobo or 2.30percent, followed by Guinness Nigeria Plc which advanced from N23.3 to N23.7, after adding 40kobo or 1.72percent and Access Bank Plc which rallied by 30kobo or 3.14percent, from N9.55 to N9.85.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
