Nigeria stock market opened new trading week on a negative note as investors chose to take profit following recent gains recorded on the Bourse.
As profit takers besieged the Bourse, the value of listed stocks (market capitalisation) decreased by N138billion, from a record high of N18.308trillion on Friday to N18.170trillion on Monday.
The domestic bourse had before now seen a significant boost, driven largely by the influx of liquidity from the fixed income (FI) market amidst unattractive/low yields.
Earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the inflation figures for October 2020. Notably, headline rate rose from 13.71 percent year-on-year (y/y) in September 2020 to 14.23percent y/y in October 2020 – the highest since March 2018.
Following last week’s gain in excess of N2trillion, analysts at Lagos-based United Capital who expected that the market will remain buoyed with liquidity, said they anticipated some profit-taking activity this week. Though, they still maintained that the bullish momentum will be sustained.
The All Share Index (ASI) –the benchmark performance indicator of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) –decreased by 0.69percent on Monday November 16 to 34,774.08 points from preceding trading day high of 35,037.46 points.
Also, Lagos-based Vetiva Securities analysts had anticipated a continued bullish performance this week, “as more funds continue to chase attractive counters in the equities market in the face of lower yields in fixed income instruments.
However, they noted that the possibility of profit taking cannot be overruled given the significant upward movement recorded last week.
Zenith Bank Plc, Transcorp Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, UBA Plc and Access Bank Plc were actively traded stocks on the Bourse. In 10,319 deals investors exchanged 668,531,406 units valued at N7.849billion.
Nigerian Breweries led the laggards after its share price moved from N63.1 to N58, losing N5.1 or 8.08 percent. It was followed by Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc which dropped from
N22.2 to N20, losing N2.2 or 9.91percent.
Also, Lafarge Africa Plc decreased from
N24.1 to N22, losing N2.1 or 8.71 percent, Flour Mill dropped from a high of N29.95 to N28.05, losing N1.9 or 6.34percent while Zenith Bank share price dipped from N27.15 to N26, down by N1.15 or 4.24 percent.
