Profit-taking drives ASI lower by 0.2% as investors lose N41bn

By Chinwendu Obienyi

The five-week bullish run came to a halt last week, as investors took profits off dividend-paying stocks which resulted in 0.16 per cent decline in the market’s main index.

Specifically, the domestic bourse recorded losses in three of the five trading sessions of the week, following profit-taking in the shares of Okomu Oil (-10 per cent), BUAFOODS (-4.0 per cent), GTCO (-3.4 per cent), Seplat (-2.3 per cent) and MTNN (-1.2 per cent).

Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) shed 0.2 per cent week-on-week (w/w) to close at 47,202.30 points while investors lost N41 billion as market capitalisation closed the week at N25.436 trillion from an opening value of N25.477 trillion.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date (MTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD) returns moderated to +1.2 per cent and +10.5 per cent, respectively.

According to the weekly data report from the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), a total turnover of 1.331 billion shares worth N22.700 billion in 24,039 deals was traded last week, in contrast to a total of 1.785 billion shares valued at N19.614 billion that exchanged hands last week in 27,822 deals.

Commenting on the performance of the market, analysts at Cordros Capital,said as the market resumes today, investors will try to take advantage of the moderation in the share prices of stocks to make a re-entry in dividend-paying stocks ahead of subsequent 2021 full year earnings releases.

“However, we believe investors will remain reluctant to leave gains in the market. As such, we expect intermittent profit-taking to continue due to uncertainties about the direction of yields in the FI market. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”, they said.    

Meanwhile, the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 886.121 million shares valued at N10.058 billion traded in 11.563 deals; thus contributing 66.60 per cent and 44.31 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The consumer goods industry followed with 107.592 million shares worth N4.472 billion in 3,833 deals while the conglomerates industry recorded a turnover of 102.192 million shares worth N198.077 million in 1,008 deals.