On Thursday, the local bourse market capitalisation reversed the gains of the previous day trading by N23bn as profit-taking dragged the stocks of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (-2.96 per cent) and Nestle (-2.38 per cent).
Both the All-Share Index and the market capitalisation dropped by 0.06 per cent to close at 67,335.30 points and N36.853tn respectively.
Consequently, the year-to-date gains of the local bourse moderated to 32.02 per cent.
On Thursday, market activity rebounded, with total deals, volume, and value increasing by 4.83 per cent, 38.43 per cent, and 62.93 per cent, respectively, amounting to 8,810 trades, 788.54 million units and N14.17bn.
Specifically, stocks such as Transcorp, GTCO, Zenith bank, Nestle, and FBN Holdings suffered losses as their respective share prices dipped by 4.69 per cent, 2.96 per cent, 2.51 per cent, 2.38 per cent, and 1.67 per cent, respectively.
Despite the negative sentiment in the market, the number of gainers, 26, slightly outnumbered that of losers which was 25.
Sectorial performance was strong, as the NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, and NGX Industrial Indices rose by 0.68 per cent, 0.51 per cent, and 0.09 per cent, respectively, while the NGX Consumer Goods Index fell by 0.28 per cent and the NGX Oil and Gas Indices remained unchanged.
Particularly, the shares of United Bank for Africa surged 8.25 per cent after the major lender posted robust half-year earnings.
Other gainers on Thursday included Stanbic IBTC Holdings which gained 4.62 per cent in its stock per unit to close at N68; Julius Berger gained N3.33 per cent to close trading at N31 per share.
Cadbury’s shares gained 2.55 per cent to close at N16.10 per unit; Glaxo SmithKline gained 2.12 per cent to close at N12.05 and Oando’s shares appreciated by 1.97 per cent to close at N10.35 per unit.
The UBA’s stock was the most active with 301.03 million shares worth N4.89 billion changing hands in 1,595 deals. Sterling Bank followed with 82.48m units of its share valued at N313.29m.
Over 36.69m units of Oando shares worth N383.75m were traded and Fidelity Bank’s 31.39m units of shares valued at N261.26m were exchanged.
