Stock market dips by 0.27%

Nigeria’s stock market opened the new week in red (down by -0.27percent) as investors continued to take profit following recent gains.

Stocks like Flour Mills, BUA Cement, MTNN, International Breweries and Africa Prudential were mostly offered on the sell side of the Nigerian bourse on Monday, leading to about N41billion decline in the cumulative value of listed equities.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased to 28,337.49 points while market capitalization dropped to N14.811trillion as against preceding trading day’s high of 28,415.31 points and N14.852 trillion respectively.

In 4,750 deals, investors exchanged 369,177,675 units valued at N5.060billion. UBA, GTBank, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings, Transcorp were actively traded stocks.

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Flour Mills Nigeria Plc led the losers table after its share price decreased from N22 to N21, losing N1 or 4.55percent. BUA Cement Plc followed, from N41.5 to N40.9, down by 60kobo or 1.45percent. MTN N Plc dipped from N140.5 to N140, down by 50kobo or 0.36percent.

Despite pockets of profit taking last week, the nation’s equities market still gained N747billion.

Some analysts had expected some level of correction and stability this week, thereby foreseeing continuation of last Friday’s profit taking activities.

“For this week, we expect the monument to be sustained judging by the huge liquidity in the system coupled with fewer investment alternatives. However, we do not overrule the place of profit taking”, said research analysts at Lagos-based United Capital.

Also in their recent note to investors, Meristem analysts said they “anticipate lingering bullish sentiments to fuel market performance this week. Although we do not rule out profit taking activities which kicked in last week, we expect that the bulls would have the upper hand.”

“In making a case for buying interest in the equities market, we identify elevated system liquidity supported by incoming OMO maturities, depressed fixed income yields and a dearth of attractive alternative investment options to dictate market direction this week. Ultimately, we expect that the market would close positive this week”, Meristem analysts said in an October 12 note to investors.