Nigerian stocks weakened by 1.08 per cent or N237.9 billion on Wednesday, the first trading day since the market closed for yuletide celebrations, heaping more pressure on a bourse that has been pretty low activity lately.

Wednesday’s gloomy trade resulted from the fact that there were few buyers willing to buy the shares of the likes of BUA Cement, UPDC REIT and MTNNcompared to the relatively large quantity of their shares that were up for sale.

“We note that sellers would largely be booking profits from the prior week as well as for the year (in the case of short-term traders),” analysts at investment bank and broker United Capital said in a forecast for this week seen by PREMIUM TIMES.

Market breadth, often used by traders to gauge the level of investors’ sentiment towards trade, closed on a negative note as 18 gainers were reported relative to 16 losers.

The all-share index contracted by 455.75 basis points to 41,807.1, while market capitalisation dropped to N21.82 trillion at the end of trade.

Year to date, the index is up by 3.82 per cent.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

NEM led the flock of gainers, appreciating by 100 per cent to close at N4.84 after the completion of its share reconstruction exercise. Union Bank added 9.91 per cent to end trade at N6.10. Royal Exchange went up by 9.09 per cent to N0.84. Sovereign Trust rose to N0.28, notching up 7.69 per cent in the process. AIICO completed the top 5, climbing by 6.86 per cent to N2.18.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

BUA Cement was the worst performing stock, declining by 10 per cent to close at N67.05. May & Baker fell to N4.06, losing 9.98 per cent. PZ dipped to N6.10, recording 8.96 per cent depreciation. Jaiz Bank shed 8.06 per cent to close at N0.57. UPDC REIT closed at N3.75, going down by 6.25 per cent.

TOP 5 TRADES

In all, 180.2 million shares estimated at N1.5 billion were traded in 3,828 deals.

Jaiz was the most active stock with 17.7 million units of its shares worth N10.5 million traded in 89 deals. Union Bank transacted 16.8 shares priced at N101.8 million in 296 trades.

UACN traded 12.9 million shares estimated at N123.5 million in 28 transactions. Transcorp traded 11.4 million shares valued at N11.3 million in 134 deals. Sovereign Trust had 10 million shares valued at N2.8 million traded in 23 deals.

PT