Transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday reversed the eight-day upward trend with market indicators dropping by 0.53 per cent due to profit taking embarked upon by investors.
The market capitalisation lost N47 billion or 0.53 per cent to close at N8.859 trillion against N8.906 trillion posted on Monday.
Similarly, the All-Share Index which opened at 25,890.94 lost 135.93 points or 0.53 per cent to close at 25,755.01.
Market watchers attributed the development to profit taking embarked upon by some investors to take advantage of growth recorded by the market in the past couple of days.
They said that the dip was predominantly influenced by the loss recorded on the share price of Dangote Cement Plc. It shed 2.90 per cent to close at N163.12.
They said that profit warning announced by the Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) also contributed to the market downturn.
CWG, in a profit warning released by NSE, said, “it will incur a number of significant one-off charges that will contribute to an overall loss for the financial year ended December 31, 2015″.
Dangote Cement, which recently declared a dividend of N8, led the losers’ chart, shedding N4.88 to close at N163.12 per share.
Nigerian Breweries came second with a loss of N1.96 to close at N96.04, while ETI declined by 16k to close at N18.10 per share.
National Salt shed 15k to close at N7.02, while Cement Company of Northern Nigeria dipped 12k to close at N8.88 per share.
Conversely, Lafarge Africa topped the gainers’ chart, growing by N2.50 to close at N85 per share.
PZ Industries followed with a gain of N1.10 to close at N25.20, while CAP appreciated by 94k to close at N38.50 per share.
Guinness grew by 51k to close at N114.01, while Union Bank increased by 38k to close at N5.98 per share.
FCMB Group emerged the most traded equity with an exchange of 34.93 million shares worth N26.488 million.
It was trailed by UBA; having accounted for 26.48 million shares valued N90.81 million, while Zenith Bank sold 22.07 million shares worth N268.06 million.
Fidelity Bank exchanged 21.31 million shares valued N24.49 million, while C & I Leasing traded 17.73 million shares worth N8.86 million.
In all, investors bought and sold 233.43 million shares valued N1.42 billion transacted in 3,224 deals.
This was in contrast to 186.38 million shares worth N1.31 billion traded in 3,106 deals on Monday.
