Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
Equities market in Nigeria closed negative again on Wednesday with major market indices finishing in the red zone.
Profit-taking by investors dragged the market down by 0.77 percent, while the Year-to-Date (YtD) return dropped to 13.85 percent.
The All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 339.14 points to close at 43,538.16 points, while the market capitalisation went down by N122 billion to finish at N15.624 trillion.
Business Post reports that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart after trading 423.7 million shares worth N3.2 billion, while the Consumer Goods sector followed after exchanging 41.5 million shares valued at N1.1 billion.
Lasaco Assurance emerged the most trade equity on Wednesday, selling 57.2 million shares worth N20.1 million.
It was trailed by FBN Holdings, which traded 55.9 million shares valued at N707.3 million, and Skye Bank, which sold 43 million units for N48.3 million.
Access Bank exchanged 31.4 million equities for N396 million, while Dangote Sugar transacted 29.7 million shares for N689 million.
At the close of business today, both the volume and value of shares traded by investors depreciated 29.12 percent and 6.91 percent respectively.
A total of 508.3 million shares valued at N4.6 billion exchanged hands on Wednesday compared with 717.2 million equities worth N4.9 billion transacted on Tuesday.
The day’s biggest price gainer was Unilever, which appreciated by N2.25k to finish at N47.60k per share.
It was followed by Zenith Bank, which increased by 80k to close at N32 per share, and Caverton, which rose by 27k to end at N3.5k per share.
CCNN advanced by 25k to close at N19 per share, while GlaxoSmithKline also gained 25k to settle at N19.25k per share.
At the other end, Mobil suffered the biggest loss after going down by N10.50k to finish at N199.50k per share.
It was trailed by Dangote Cement, which fell by N6 to close at N264 per share, and Nigerian Breweries, which slumped by N2.90k to settle at N142 per share.
Stanbic IBTC crashed by N1.65k to close at N45.35k per share, while Julius Berger went down by N1.25k to end at N26.5k per share.
At the close of trading activities, a total of 18 counters recorded price gains, while prices of 40 counters declined.
Business Post expects the bearish run to continue tomorrow amid sustained sell-off as investors try to feed on profit made earlier at the market in January this year.
