Nigerian stock market sees a large drop on Friday as equity investors continue to pull profits after initial telecom price appreciation induced rallies. This appears to be a reversal of the previous trading pattern, notably as a result of an offensive selling signal.

Reserving the uptrend, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) thus closed lower after three days of selloffs activities with year to date returns reversing early gains.

Market data shows that equity investors lost more than N150 billion at the final trading session in the week following the profit-taking on MTNN after recent gains. Also, fourteen other stocks witnessed selling rallies. The equity market had priced in new information about MTN Nigeria proposed public offering including Telcom operators licensing for payment services banks,

Consequent to waning sentiment, the Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index (NGX-ASI) dipped 296.27 basis points, representing a decline of 0.68 per cent to close at 43,253.01 points.

Then, equity market capitalisation slowdown by a huge amount as bearish trade knocked off a total sum of ₦154.65 billion from the opening value to close at ₦22.57 trillion.

Meanwhile, the market activities were bullish, as the total volume and value traded grew by 95.18 per cent and 117.28 per cent, respectively, as against the previous session.

A total of 314.85 million units valued at ₦4.65 billion were transacted in 3,400 deals, data from the Nigerian Exchange charts show. Atlass Portfolios Limited hinted that FBNH outperformed the traded stocks in terms of volume, accounting for 41.22 per cent of the total volume of trades.

This was followed by STANBIC (6.20%), GTCO (5.86%), FLOURMILL (5.19%), and FCMB (5.03%) to complete the top five on the volume chart. FBNH emerged as the most traded stock in value terms, with 33.04 per cent of the total value of trades on the exchange, stocks pickers at Atlass Portfolios said.

VERITASKAP topped the advancers’ list as its share prices rose by 9.52 per cent, trailed by FBNH (4.35%), UBA (3.68%), ETI (1.78%), FLOURMILL (1.54%), FCMB (0.65%), GTCO (0.18%) and nine (9) others.

Conversely, 15 stocks declined in price led by UPDC with price depreciation of 9.47 per cent to close at ₦1.53, as LIVESTOCK (-8.68%), JAPAULGOLD (-4.55%), MTNN (-4.50%), HONYFLOUR (-3.95%), WEMABANK (-2.33%), UCAP (-0.52%), and FIDELITYBK (-0.73%) also dipped in price.

The market breadth closed marginally positively, recording 16 gainers and 15 losers. Nevertheless, the sector performance was relatively positive as three of the five major sectors closed positively, led by Insurance (0.73%), Banking (0.63%) and Consumer Goods (0.03%).