Nineteen successive day of Bull run halts, as Investors Catch Breath

After nineteen successive trading sessions of unbroken gains, the Nigerian stock market exhaled on Thursday, closing the day lower as investors turned to profit-taking. The bearish mood marked a pause in what had been an impressive rally driven by bargain-hunting and renewed institutional inflows.

The All Share Index dropped by 0.43% to close at 166,057.29 points from the previous close of 166,771.95 points.

The Market Capitalisation declined by 0.43% to close at N106.323 trillion from the previous close of N106.780 trillion, thereby shedding N457 billion.

An aggregate of 1 billion units of shares were traded in 51,227 deals, valued at N31.6 billion.

The Market Breadth closed positive as 36 equities emerged as gainers against 41 equities that declined in their share prices.

Percentage Gainers

NESTLE led other gainers with 10.00% growth to close at N2153.80 from Wednesday’s close of N1958.00.

NCR, Jaiz Bank and MORISON among other gainers also grew their share prices by 9.97%, 9.92% and 9.90% respectively.

Percentage Losers

MCNICHOLS led other price decliners as it shed 9.99% of its share price to close at N6.58 from the previous close of N7.31.

CAVERTON and Ikeja Hotel among other price decliners also shed their share prices by 9.47% and 9.43% respectively.

Volume Drivers

Sovereign Trust Insurance traded about 245 million units of its shares in 181 deals, valued at N798 million.

ACCESSCORP traded about 98 million units of its shares in 1996 deals, valued at N1.8 billion.

Zenith Bank traded about 72 million units of its shares in 1844 deals, valued at N5 billion.