Profit taking, portfolio repositioning and realignment by investors on NSE retained the Bears again on the back drop of improved rate in Treasury bills and further drop in the value of Naira. The rate in the Treasury bill is improving, hence, there is an outflow of funds in the market to take position in T- Bills. Investors are also pulling out funds for arbitrage in the forex market to take advantage of the depreciated Naira.
The All share Index on Thursday declined further by 0.25% to settle at 34,968.94 points against the previous close of 35,056.82 points. Market Capitalisation declined by 0.25% to N18.227 trillion from the previous close of N18.323 trillion, thereby shedding N46 billion.
An aggregate of 289.394 million units of shares were traded in 4,878 deals, valued at N7.348 billion.
The market breadth closed negative as 13 equities gained while 25 equities declined in their share prices.
Stocks to Watch
Fundamentally sound stocks should always be at the back of the mind of every investors. The lower the price, the better for entry.
- Access Bank has been trading between N8.7 and N8.6. The stock is currently trading 28.33% away from its 52 weeks high of N12. At that, there is growth potential in the share price of Access Bank.
- FBN Holdings has been trading between N7.2 and N7.3 axis. It is trading 20% away from its 52 weeks high of N9 which implies an uptrend potential for the share price of the big elephant.
- Zenith Bank dropped to N23.55 from N24. It is trading 17.37% away from its 52 weeks high of N28.5.
- WAPCO has been resilient at N23 for days. It is trading 11.54% away from its 52 weeks high of N26, which implies an uptrend potential for the share price of the company.
- UBA dropped to N8.20 from the previous close of N8.65. It is trading 16.33% away from its 52 weeks high of N9.8. There is growth potential in the share price of the bank.
- Guaranty Trust Bank dropped further to N33.6 from the previous close of N34.1. It is trading 12.61% away from its 52 weeks high of N38.45, which suggest an uptrend potential for the share price of Guaranty Trust Bank.
Percentage Gainers
Mutual Benefit Assurance led other gainers with 9.52% growth to close at N0.23 from the previous close of N0.21.
Royal Exchange Assurance and FTN Cocoa Processors Plc among other gainers also grew there share prices by 9.09% and 8.00% respectively.
Percentage Losers
Unity Bank led other price decliners as it shed 9.86% of its share price to close at N0.64 from the previous close of N0.71.
Chams Plc and NAHCO among other price decliners also shed their share prices by 8.00% and 6.81% respectively.
Volume Drivers
- UBA traded about 34.45 million units of its shares in 261 deals, valued at N283.44 million.
- Zenith Bank traded about 31.20 million units of its shares in 508 deals, valued at N743.58 million.
- MTN traded about 27.4 million units of its shares in 131 deals, valued at N4.379 billion.