Profit taking: Nigeria stock market opens with 0.75% loss

Transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) commenced the week on Monday with a loss of 0.75 per cent amid renewed profit taking.

Specifically, the market capitalisation dipped N137 billion or 0.75 per cent to close at N18.171 trillion compared with N18.308 trillion recorded on Friday.

Also, the All-Share Index lost 263.38 points or 0.75 per cent to close at 34,774.08 from 35,037.46 achieved on Friday.

The downtrend was impacted by losses recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Lafarge Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria and Zenith Bank.

Analysts at United Capital Plc expected that the market this week would be buoyed with liquidity.

They also anticipated some profit-taking activity, adding that the bullish momentum would be sustained.

Market breadth was negative with 43 losers in relative with 11 gainers.

Nigerian Aviation Handling Company and Oando dominated the laggards' chart in percentage terms, losing 10 per cent each to close at N2.34 and N3.60 per share, respectively.

Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with 9.91 per cent to close at N20 per share.

Fidelity Bank dipped 9.69 per cent to close at N2.61, while Livestock Feeds shed 9.66 per cent to close at N1.31 per share.

On the other hand, BOC Gases topped the gainers' chart in percentage terms, gaining 9.92 per cent to close at N5.32 per share.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with 8.99 per cent to close at N2.91, while Unity Bank rose by 8.86 per cent to close at 86k per share.

Ardova grew by 8.11 per cent to close at N16, while BUA Cement appreciated by 7.69 per cent to close at N56 per share.

Also, the total volume of shares traded closed lower with a total of 668.53 million shares worth N7.85 billion traded in 10,319 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 1.24 billion shares valued at N16.29 billion accounted in 13,433 deals on Friday.

Transactions in the shares of Zenith Bank topped the activity chart with 94.03 million shares worth N2.51 billion.

Transcorp followed with 75.48 million shares valued at N82.99 million, while FBN Holdings traded 65.22 million shares worth N499.29 million.

United Bank for Africa traded 60.10 million shares valued at N524.52 million, while Access Bank transacted 50.29 million shares worth N449.47 million.