Profit taking: NSE opens trading with 0.21%

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reopened for the week on Monday still on a bearish trend, amid persistent sell pressure.
Specifically, the All-Share Index dipped 56.73 points, representing a decline of 0.21 per cent to close at 27,089.84 against 27,146.57 posted on Friday.
In the same vein, the market capitalisation lost N28 billion or 0.21per cent to close at N13.179 trillion, compared to N13.206 trillion on Friday.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nestle Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Oando and Cutix.
Analysts at Afrinvest Limited said that, “In line with the trend, we expect the bearish performance to continue in the absence of any positive driver.
They said they did not rule out the possibility of some bargain-hunting, driving positive performance in subsequent sessions, never the less.
However, market breadth closed slightly on the positive side with 15 gainers versus 14 losers.
A breakdown of the price movement chart indicates that Livestock Feeds led the losers’ chart with 7.14 per cent to close at 39 kobo, per share.
Lasaco Assurance followed with a loss of 6.90 per cent to close at 27k, while Cutix lost 6.67 per cent to close at N1.40 per share.
NPF Micro Finance Bank depreciated by 6.45 per cent to close at N1.16, while Nestle Nigeria dipped by 5.73 per cent to close at N1,136, per share.
Conversely, UACN and UAC Property Development Company recorded the highest price gain of 9.09 per cent each, to close at N6.60 and N1.08 per share respectively.
John Holt followed, gaining 8.93 per cent to close at 61k per share.
Seplat rose by 7.12 per cent to close at N426, while FBN Holdings appreciated by 6.90 per cent to close at N4.65 per share.
 
Similarly, total volume traded depreciated by 6.7 per cent with an exchange of 290.49 million shares worth N4.29 billion traded in 2,900 deals.
This was in contrast with a total of 311.26 million shares, valued at N6.44 billion transacted in 3,192 deals on Friday.
Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with a turnover of 128.49 million shares worth N3.38 billion.
FBN Holdings followed with 41.84 million shares valued at N183.53 million, while Transcorp traded 32.85 million shares worth N32.9 million.
Access Bank sold 23.88 million shares valued at N162.67 million, while UACN accounted for 10.61 million shares worth N69.74 million.