Stock market dips slightly by 0.07% as profit taking wanes

Nigerian’s equities market decreased marginally by 0.07percent on Tuesday January 19, signally waning profit taking activities.

Though investors raised bets in stocks like Flour Mills Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Northern Nigeria Flour Mills Plc, Presco and Lafarge, but profit-taking in value counters like Ardova Plc, BUA Cement Plc, UACN Plc, Access Bank Plc, and UBA Plc triggered the negative close.

A record two-day negative closes on Custom Street pushed the benchmark performance indicator down by 0.30percent this week. Despite attractive price levels of most fundamentally sound stocks when compared to some analysts target prices, trading sessions for this week have been largely controlled by the bears, due to profit taking on gains made in the previous week.

Ardova led the decliners after its share price moved from N19.7 to N18, losing N1.7 or 8.63percent; followed by BUA Cement which decreased from N79.9 to N79, down by 90kobo or 1.13percent. UACN also dipped from N8.35 to N7.9, losing 45kobo or 5.39percent; Access Bank decreased from N9.6 to N9.25, down by 35kobo or 3.65percent, while UBA dipped from N9.1 to N8.9, shedding 20kobo or 2.20percent.

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The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) decreased by 0.07percent, from 41,082.38 points to 41,051.63 points, while the market capitalisation of listed lost N16billion, moving from N21.490trillion to N21.474trillion. The market’s year-to-date (YtD) positive return dipped to +1.94 percent at the close of trading session.

Market analysts expect that with the NSE ASI closing south in the last two sessions, some bargain hunting activities will return on Wednesday, driven by low prices.

In 5,965 deals, investors exchanged 525,006,911 units valued at N5.33billion. Transcorp, Japaul Gold, Zenith Bank, BUA Cement and Courteville Business Solutions were actively traded stocks on the Exchange.