Nigeria bourse succumbs to profit taking, loses N50bn

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market indicators succumbed to profit taking on Thursday, dropping by 0.38 per cent.
Specifically, the All-Share Index dipped 95.91 points, representing a dip of 0.38 per cent to close at 25,312.05 compared with 25,407.96 posted on Wednesday.
Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N13.254 trillion shed N50 billion to close at N13.204 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; MTN Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Bank, Custodian Investment, GlaxoSmithkline and Access Bank.
The market breadth closed slightly negative with 16 gainers against 17 losers.
Cutix led the losers’ chart in percentage terms with a loss of 9.63 per cent, to close at N1.69, per share.
Lasaco Assurance trailed with 7.41 per cent to close at 25k, while Custodian Investment shed 7.14 per cent to close at N5.85 per share.
Union Diagnostic dropped by 6.67 per cent to close at 28k, while May and Baker dipped 5.54 per cent to close at N2.90 per share.
Conversely, UACN Property dominated the gainers’ table in percentage terms with a growth of 10 per cent, to close at 88k per share.
Linkage Assurance followed with 9.76 per cent to close at 45k, while Skyway Aviation Holding appreciated by 9.69 per cent to close at N2.49 per share.
Neimeth improved by 9.52 per cent to close at N1.61, while C & I Leasing rose by 9.28 per cent to close at N5.30 per share.
Also, the total volume of trade declined by 23.53 per cent to 270.19 million shares valued at N5.29 billion transacted in 4,550 deals.
This was against a total of 353.33 million shares worth N7.04 billion exchanged in 4,659 deals on Wednesday.
Transactions in the shares of FBN Holdings topped the activity chart with 41.35 million shares valued at N225.67 million.
Zenith Bank followed with 25.21 million shares worth N427.74 million, while FCMB Group accounted for 22.07 million shares valued at N38.23 million.
Guaranty Trust Bank sold 18.74 million shares worth N465.25 million, while Dangote Cement transacted 18.03 million shares valued at N2.57 billion.