BUA Cement, others cause equities market’s first dip this week

After a two-day rally, Nigeria’s equities market recorded its first decline on Wednesday by a remarkable margin of 0.75 percent or N215billion.

This dip came as more investors sold shares of BUA Cement Plc, Africa Prudential Plc, Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc and Academy Press Plc.

The market’s record negative close on Wednesday erased this week’s earlier gains, thereby pushing the week-to-date (WtD) return into negative of 0.49 percent.

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The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and its equities Market Capitalisation decreased from preceding day’s high of 52,605.41 points and N28.643 trillion to 52,209.06 points and N28.428 trillion.

BUA Cement decreased most, from N97.85 to N90, losing N7.85 or 8.02 percent. It was followed by that of Africa Prudential which moved down from N5.60 to N5.35, shedding 25kobo or 4.46 percent and Academy Press which dropped from N1.65 to N1.52, losing 13kobo or 7.88 percent. Caverton also dropped from a high of N1.16 to N1.05, losing 11kobo or 9.48percent.

In 5,168 deals, investors exchanged 554,312,101 shares valued at N5.957billion. Shares of Access Corporation, FBN Holdings, FCMB Group, UBA and Zenith Bank were most traded on the Nigeria Exchange Limited. The market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) decreased to 1.87 percent.