Nigerian Stock Market Drops by N395bn Amid Intensified Profit-Taking

The Nigerian stock market witnessed a substantial decline of N395 billion due to intensified profit-taking activities by investors. The Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index (ASI) closed at 165,512.18 basis points, reflecting a week-on-week decline of 0.37%.

Market capitalization dropped from N105.959 trillion to N106.354 trillion by the end of the week. The NGX Consumer Goods Index decreased by 2%, while the NGX Banking Index depreciated by 1.3%.

Despite the overall market decline, market breadth remained moderately positive with 57 advancing stocks compared to 40 decliners. Notable gainers included Deap Capital Management Trust, SCOA Nigeria (NGX: SCOA), and NCR Nigeria, while Eterna (NGX: ETERNA) led the decliners.

Total turnover stood at 3.748 billion shares worth N99.865 billion. Analysts caution investors to adopt a cautious approach due to ongoing profit-taking activities and a relatively soft trading environment.