Profit Booking Slightly Lowers Nigerian Stock Market

At the beginning of the workweek, the Nigerian stock market experienced a marginal decline as investors embarked on profit-booking. This slight bearish trend interrupted four consecutive days of growth in the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), causing the All Share Index (ASI) to drop by 0.15 percent, ending at 71,008.70 basis points.

Impact of Tier-1 Banks

The downturn was largely influenced by sell-offs from heavyweight banking stocks, including Zenith Bank, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, and United Bank for Africa. These leading institutions saw their share prices fall by 0.75 percent, 7.08 percent, and 0.48 percent respectively, contributing to the overall dip in the market's performance.

Trading Figures

Following the trading day, the cumulative effect of the sell-offs amounted to a N57.31 billion reduction in investors' wealth, with the market capitalization settling at N39.05 trillion. Despite the overall downtrend, market sentiment remained positive with 35 stocks recording gains compared to 15 experiencing losses. Mecure Industries Plc and Multiverse Mining and Exploration Plc led the gains, while R T Briscoe Plc and Prestige Insurance endured the highest losses.

Sectorial Performance and Volume

The market's sectorial performance was mostly sluggish. The Banking and Consumer Goods indices posted losses while the Oil/Gas and Industrial Goods sectors remained largely unaffected. The Insurance sector, however, emerged as a winner, seeing a marginal 0.50 percent rise. Additionally, trading volumes and values fell by 18.83 percent and 27.77 percent respectively, albeit the number of trades for the day increased by 11.35 percent to 6,551 transactions.

Most Active Stocks

Access Holdings was the most actively traded stock in terms of volume, with 27.58 million units changing hands, while Zenith Bank led in terms of value traded.

Nigerian, Stocks, Investors