Trading on the stock market of Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX), on Wednesday, ended on a cautious note with investors losing one billion Naira.
Specifically, the market capitalisation which opened at N55.872 trillion dipped one billion naira to close at N55.871 trillion.
Similarly, the All-Share index shed 174 points to settle at 102,106.31, compared to 102,108.05 posted at the previous session.
As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return slipped to 36.55 per cent.
Reacting Mr David Adonri, Vice Chairman, Highcap Securities Ltd., said investors in the stock market had made lot of profit, hence the recent sell-offs witnessed in the market.
Adonri, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said that downtown in the market performance was not unusual, having witnessed several weeks of unimaginable gain.
He said: “Any investor who has not taken his or her profit would have no one to blame.
“Many of the investors left now in the market are institutional investors who are investing for a very longtime and are not bothered about the short term volatility of the market.
Meanwhile, market breadth closed negative with 35 declining stocks outnumbering 17 advancing ones.
Selloffs in Tier-one banks, namely: Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and United Bank of Africa (UBA) kept the market in the negative terrain.
On the losers’ chart, AIICO Insurance led by 9.92 per cent to close at N1.18, Cadbury trailed by 9.50 per cent to close at N21.90 per share.
Guinea Insurance lost 8.93 per cent to close at 51k, Tantalizers shed 8.70 per cent to close at 42k and Honeywell Flour declined by 6.69 per cent to close at N4.01 per share.
Conversely, Meyer Plc led the gainers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N5.72, Triple Gee gained 9.84 per cent to close at N4.13. per share.
Also, Juli garnered 9.09 per cent to close at 84k, Cornerstone Insurance shed 8.78 per cent to close at 2.23 per cent and Africa Prudential Plc rose by 8.70 per cent to close at N8.75 per share.
Transcorp led the activity chart with 39.90 million shares valued at N548.82 million, while First Bank Nigeria Holdings (FBNH) sold 33.61 million shares worth N840.59.
GTCO transacted 26.02 million shares valued at 1.02 billion, UBA sold 23.95 million shares worth N598.17 million and Fidelity traded 18.25 million shares worth N211.38 million.
Meanwhile, a total of 341.92 billion shares valued at N6.41 billion were exchanged in 9,665 deals, as against 494.19 million shares valued at N7.6 billion in 11,761 deal recorded on Tuesday.
Analysis of the market activities indicated that trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, as the value of transactions declined by 15.68 per cent.