On Business Express today, the popular radio show on Smooth 98.1FM in Lagos, Rotus, the show host asked his guest Dolapo Ashiru when he thought the rally that had so far lasted 9 days will end. He quickly responded that the lifespan for a rally is 10 days and as such should expect some profit taking today. He couldn’t haven’t been more spot on.
The Nigerian All Share Index closed lower on Tuesday, the first time in 9 bullish days. Here are highlights of today’s trading according to a Meristem daily report.
All Share Index
The NSE All Share Index closed under water today, after declining by 116 basis points to peg the Year-to-Date return at 19.82%. Volume of shares traded advanced by 16.83% while the market value of transactions declined by 15.07%. The market breadth stood at 1.91x reflecting the forty-two (42) advancers and twenty-two (22) decliners.
Top gainers and losers
STERLNBANK led the gainers’ chart, having appreciated by 9.76% to close at a year-high of NGN0.90. The counter was trailed by MAYBAKER, CHAMPION, DIAMONDBNK and UAC-PROP with respective gains of 9.69%, 9.15%, 5.79% and 5.17%. Amongst the top laggards of the day were MOBIL (-9.75%), DANGCEM (-5.00%), NPFMCRFBK (-5.00%), UNILEVER (-4.53%) and MANSARD (-4.44%).
Sector indices
Market performance, as measured by the NSE-Sector indices, revealed gains across most sectors save for the Industrial goods (NSEIND) and Insurance sectors (NSEINS10) which recorded declines of 0.77% and 0.22%. The Food and Beverages sector (NSEFBT10; +0.85%) recorded the best performance, followed by the Banking (NSEBNK10; +0.27%) and the Oil & Gas (NSEOILG5; +0.20%) sectors.
Profit taking ?
Following the substantial price gains recorded in recent trading sessions, the profit-taking activities witnessed in the day were quite expected. The 5.00% fall in the price of DANGCEM was however largely responsible for the negative closing of the market, as ex-DANGCEM, the market would have returned 0.63%. We expect a continuation of the current market mood in the next trading day.
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