Investors dump shares as capital market sheds N328bn

Massive profit-taking especially in blue chip equities led investors to dump large volumes of shares for sale today as the market shed N328 billion.

A negative market breadth was recorded today as there were 39 losers against just 1 gainer.

The Insurance Index shed 2.42% to close at 115.08 basis points, the Oil and Gas Index 1.41% to close at 232.55 basis points, the Banking Index 8.95% to close at 298.12 basis points, the Consumer Goods Index 2.49% to close at 420.49 basis points and the Industrial Index 0.01 to close at 1,162.79 basis points.

The All Share Index (ASI) shrank by 2.41% to close at 25,647.54 basis points. Market Capitalisation fell to N13.366 trillion at the end of today’s trade. Year to date, the index is up by 4.44%.

Chi Plc was the only gainer today, appreciating by 7.14%% to close at N0.3.

Nigerian Breweries was the worst performing stock today, declining by 9.93% to close at N236.75. Stanbic shed 10% to close at N31.5. GTB fell to N22.15, losing 9.96%. Zenith dipped to N16.95, recording 9.84% depreciation. Conoil closed at N16.2, going down by 10%.

185.649 million shares estimated at N1.825 billion were traded today in 2,690 deals.

Zenith was the most active stock today with 53.515 million units of its stocks worth N907.077 billion traded in 598 deals. 23.059 million units of Transcorp shares priced at N18.004 million exchanged hands in 95 transactions. GTB had 15.206 million shares valued at N336.807 million traded in 208 deals. SAHCO traded 8.373 million shares estimated at N19.592 million in 5 transactions. Law Union & Rock traded 6.874 million shares valued at N6.689 million in 78 deals.