Nigerian stocks halt gains as trade volume drops

Nigerian stocks ended their weak rally on Thursday, with the benchmark index dropping 1.12 per cent, conceding almost all the entire gain recorded at the previous session to bearish investors willing to make do with paltry returns that have accrued from shares in the past few days.

Compared to Wednesday’s trade, volume declined by 9 per cent just as the worth of transactions fell, in this case by as much as 43 per cent.

Profit-taking in Dangote Cement, the country’s biggest company by market value, battered the broad index just as losses by UPDC REIT, Ardova and FBN Holdings led the overall equity valuation on a downward trajectory.

More financial reports for 2021 were released on Thursday, which were generally impressive, with consumer goods companies Unilever and Guinness both making a resounding return to profitability after a torrid time of operational setback in the year of the pandemic outbreak.

Market breadth, was positive as with 26 advancers emerged relative to 18 losers. The all-share index weakened by 520.76 basis points to 46,009.23, while the market capitalisation contracted to N24.8 trillion.

The index has yielded 7.71 per cent year to date.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

Guinness led gainers, growing by 10 per cent to close at N46.75. International Breweries gained 10 per cent to close at N5.50. ETI rose by 9.63 per cent to N11.95. Prestige Insurance leapt to N0.46, notching up 9.52 per cent in the process. Unilever completed the top 5, climbing up by 7.28 per cent to N14.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

NEM declined by 8.57 per cent to close at N3.20. Dangote Cement shrank by 8.53 per cent to end the day at N260.60. AIICO Insurance fell to N0.76, losing 5 per cent. Ardova dipped to N12.45, recording 4.96 per cent loss. Multiverse closed at N0.20, going down by 4.76 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

In all, 279.4 million shares worth N2.8 billion were traded in 4,582 deals.

UPDC REIT was the most preferred stock with 46.4 million units of its shares worth N181.9 million traded in 101 deals. Courteville transacted 36.1 million shares priced at N21.3 million in 204 trades.

Transcorp had 16.9 million shares valued at N18.2 million exchange hands in 132 deals. GTCO traded 16 million shares estimated at N409.7 million in 309 transactions. Multiverse traded 10.7 million shares valued at N2.2 million in 21 deals.