Tuesday’s trading in the Nigerian equities market turned negative as investors took profits on Dangote Cement stocks.
The All-Share Index depreciated by 0.6 per cent to 39,267.11 basis points.
Accordingly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses increased to -1.3 per cent and -2.5 per cent, respectively.
This development placed the market capitalisation at N20.545 trillion as investors shed N118 billion from their net worth.
Market sentiment was however positive as 22 tickers gained, relative to 12 losers.
On the performance chart, Livestock and Courville recorded the largest gains of the day to close with 9.7 per cent and 9.1 per cent gains, while Regal Insurance and Prestige Insurance are 9.1 per cent and 8.9 per cent topped the losers’ list.
Most sectoral indices closed in tandem with the ASI, save for the Banking and Consumer Goods sectors that gained 0.94 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively, on the back of positive performance by United Bank for Africa, Zenith Bank, UACN and Cadbury as the Oil & Gas and NSE ASEM indices closed flat.
Activity at the local bourse was however tepid as the total volume of trades decreased by 35.6 per cent to 336.13 million units, valued at N3.27 billion, and exchanged in 4,394 deals.
The most traded stock by volume was Union Bank of Nigeria at 78.89 million units, while Guaranty Trust Bank was the most traded stock by value at N955.09 million was Guaranty Trust Bank.
