Equities’ downtrend worsens with N50b loss

The sell-off at the Nigerian stock market worsened on Wednesday as average day-on-day decline grew from 0.04 per cent on Tuesday to 0.52 per cent on Wednesday, indicating net loss of N50 billion within the five-hour trading session.

The sustained decline on Wednesday worsened the negative average year-to-date return to -3.33 per cent, raising the inflation-adjusted nominal real return to -19.83 per cent. There were widespread declines in share prices across the sectors as the benchmark and sectoral indices closed in the red.

Aggregate market value of all quoted companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped from N9.559 trillion to close at N9.509 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the main index that tracks prices at the stock market, slipped from 27,831.95 points to close at 27,687.80 points.

Read Also : Equities drop further as average return worsens to -2.83%

With 24 losers to 17 gainers, the market witnessed widespread sell-off with key sectoral indices closing in the red. The NSE Oil & Gas Index dropped by 2.2 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index depreciated by 1.5 per cent. The NSE Banking Index lost 1.0 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index slipped by 0.9 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index declined by 0.2 per cent.

Large-cap stocks in the oil and gas, banking, and consumer goods led the losers. Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the losers with a loss of N27.58 to close at N255.36 per share. Seven-Up Bottling Company followed with a loss of N6.65 to close at N126.35. Lafarge Africa dropped by N2.07 to close at N51. Flour Mills of Nigeria declined by N1.07 to close at N20.43. Nigerian Breweries lost 58 kobo to close at N132.55. Zenith Bank declined by 35 kobo to close at N16.45. United Bank for Africa dropped by 23 kobo to close at N4.54. Stanbic IBTC Holdings depreciated by 16 kobo to close at N13.25 while Vitafoam Nigeria dropped by 10 kobo to close at N2.80 per share.

“Following five consecutive days of depreciation in the market, we expect bargain hunting to set in and this is further buttressed by the 14-day RSI at 39.9 which suggests the market is closer to the oversold region,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities stated.

Total turnover rose slightly to 301.15 million shares valued at N2.34 billion in 3,681 deals. The most active stock was Fidson Healthcare with 51.50 million shares. Fidelity Bank followed with 45.55 million shares while Guaranty Trust Bank recorded a turnover of 38.98 million shares.

On the upside, petroleum-marketing companies led the contrarian stocks with Total Nigeria Plc leading the rally with a gain of N5.60 to close at N206. MRS followed with a gain of N3.95 to close at N42.73. Nestle Nigeria rose by N3.80 to close at N820. PZ Cussons Nigeria added 55 kobo to close at N19 while Forte Oil chalked up 22 kobo to close at N167.22 per share.

 

 

 

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