The Nigerian Exchange Group Limited, NGX witnessed a downturn for the second trading day as profit taking in large and medium capitalised stocks pulled the market capitalisation further down by N27 billion.
At the close of transactions on Tuesday, the All-Share index decreased by 50.77 basis points, representing a drop of 0.9 per cent to close at 46,843.09 lower than the 46,893.86 points recorded on Monday.
Consequently, the market capitalisation lost N27 billion to close at N25.245 trillion compared to Monday’s N25.273 trillion.
The downtrend was impacted by losses recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, such as PZ Cussons and FCMB Group among others.
Analysts reactions
This is coming amid uncertainties hovering around the market which analysts say ”will continue through out the week as sell-off persists across all sectors. ”
Analysts from United Capital say; “This week, we expect to see continued profit-taking on positions that have appreciated, while investors reduce market exposure as dividend season gradually draws to a close. We retain a preference for investors to continue to seek selling opportunities to reduce exposure to the domestic equities market.”
Similarly, Analysts from Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage say; “As expected, the week started mixed with the banking sector taking the most hit, despite trades in that space dominating the activity chart. We foresee a further mixed trading pattern, as investors continue to bargain hunt across the board, whilst taking profit on some recent gainers.”
Market sentiment as measured by market breadth, closed negative with 16 gainers and 18 losers.
PZ Cussons Nigeria led the gainer’s chart with a gain of N1.00 to close at N11.20k.
JaPaul Gold followed with a closing price of N0.34k after gaining N0.03k while FCMB Group gained N0.29k to close at N3.40k.I
On the flipside, International Breweries led the losers’ chart with a price loss of N0.50k to close at N4.50k.
Veritaskap followed with a closing price of N0.21k after losing N0.02k, while FTN Cocoa Processors lost N0.02k to close at N0.33k.
The transactions ended with the total volume of 214,32 million units of shares, traded in 4, 125 deals.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
