Last week, equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed on the red line as the market bowed to profit-taking activities by investors despite opening the week on a strong green line.

Midweek selloffs undermined the market performance for the week as the All-Share Index (ASI) settled 0.1 per cent lower to close at 47,268.61 basis points.

Investors, therefore, lost N32 billion from their investments as the market capitalisation depreciated by 0.13 per cent to close the week at N25.475 trillion respectively.

Specifically, profit-taking activities witnessed in the stocks of International Breweries, Wapco, Nascon, Dangote Sugar, United Bank for Africa and Guinness Nigeria drove the weekly loss as their respective shares depreciated by 9.1 per cent, 8.8 per cent, 8.3 per cent, 7.7 per cent, 5.2 per cent and 4.4 per cent.

Consequently, the MTD and YTD return for the index moderated to -0.3 per cent and +10.7 per cent, respectively.

In terms of activity levels, last week’s trading volume declined by 17.2 per cent, while trading value grew by 22.8 per cent.

According to data from the local bourse, a total turnover of 1.374 billion shares worth N23.786 billion in 28,809 deals was traded last week, in contrast to a total of 1.668 billion shares valued at N19.481 billion that exchanged hands in 25,979 deals in the penultimate week.

The Financial Services Industry, measured by volume, led the activity chart with 889.542 million shares valued at N8.036 billion traded in 14,034 deals; thus contributing 64.74 per cent and 33.78 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Conglomerates Industry followed with 131.154 million shares worth N199.272 million in 1,259 deals. The third place was The ICT Industry, with a turnover of 89.777 million shares worth N10.593 billion in 2,119 deals.

During the week under review, FCMB Group Plc, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc and Zenith Bank Plc were the top three equities traded on the local bourse, measured by volume. They accounted for 416.676 million shares worth N2,98 billion in 3,321 deals, contributing 30.32 per cent and 12.57 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX Premium, NGX AseM, NGX Meristem Growth, NGX Oil/Gas and NGX Sovereign bond indices.

(Nigerian Tribune)