Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) ends southward, on Monday, as the All-Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.63 per cent to settle at 38,567.26 basis points amid renewed profit-taking activity.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date gain of the ASI printed +0.1 per cent, while its Year-to-Date loss increased to -4.2 per cent.
At the end of trading activities on Monday, equities investors lost N126.85 billion as the market worth settled at N20.09 trillion against an opening mark of N20.22 trillion.
Specifically, profit-taking on small and large-cap stocks impacted the overall performance as University Press Limited, Cornerstone Insurance, Zenith Bank, Dangote Cement and Flour Mills of Nigeria suffered the most losses after their respective share prices contracted by 9.79 per cent, 3.70 per cent, 0.41per cent, 3.26 per cent and 2.30 per cent.
However, as measured by market breadth, market sentiment was slightly positive as 18 tickers lost, relative to 19 gainers.
Sectorial performance was also weak as three out of the five indices tracked closed in the red zone; the NSE Banking, NSE Insurance and NSE Industrial indices declined by 0.05 per cent, 0.61 per cent and 1.76 per cent respectively.
On the positive side, the NSE Oil/Gas and the NSE Consumer Goods indices rose by 0.03 per cent and 1.01 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, trading activity was positive as total deals and volume of stocks traded increased by 17.23 per cent and 16.20 per cent to 3,830 deals and 0.16 billion units respectively.
Wema Bank stocks were the toast of investors on Monday as it made the most traded stock by volume at 25.77 million units, while Ellah Lakes was the most traded stock by value at N106.36 million.
Culled from the Tribune News Nigeria
