Equities drop further as average return worsens to -2.83%

Nigerian equities braced against the four-day consecutive depression at the stock market but the gains by many highly capitalised stocks failed to lift the market from the red zone.

Gains by many highly capitalised stocks however narrowed the net loss from N57 billion recorded on Monday to N4 billion by the end of trading on Tuesday.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) declined from N9.563 trillion to close at N9.559 trillion, representing a loss of N4 billion. The benchmark index at the stock market, the All Share Index (ASI), slipped from 27,843.00 points to close at 27,831.95 points, indicating average decline of 0.04 per cent.

With this, average year-to-date return at the stock market was further depressed to -2.83 per cent. all key sectoral indices also closed in the red, underlining the widespread losses across the sectors. The NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 1.9 per cent. The Insurance Index lost 1.3 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 1.0 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index declined by 0.9 per cent while the NSE Banking Index slipped by 0.1 per cent.

Read also: Equities open with N57b loss

Nestle Nigeria led the 26-stock losers’ list with a loss of N21.30 to close at N816.20. Seplat Petroleum Development Company followed with a loss of N14.89 to close at N282.94. Forte Oil lost N7.80 to close at N167. Lafarge Africa declined by N2.79 to close at N53.07. Nigerian Breweries dropped by 87 kobo to close at N133.13 per share. UAC of Nigeria dropped by 73 kobo to close at N20. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated dropped by 40 kobo to close at N12.34. Dangote Flour Mills lost 23 kobo to close at N4.67. Red Star Express dipped by 21 kobo to close at N4.02 while Guaranty Trust Bank dropped by 20 kobo to close at N24.09.

“With no major trigger to stoke investor confidence in the interim, we believe that downtrend in the market will likely continue. Nevertheless, we do not rule out the prospect of some bargain hunting in the trading days ahead,” Afrinvest Securities said on the outlook for the market.

Total turnover slowed down with the exchange of 275.74 million shares valued at N3.15 billion in 4,126 deals. Zenith Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 46.79 million shares valued at N788.23 million. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria was the second most active stock with 37.29 million shares valued at N43.05 million while Fidelity Bank placed third with 26.18 million shares valued at N28.65 million.

On the positive side, Dangote Cement led the 17-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N3 to close at N183. Guinness Nigeria rose by N1 to close at N94. PZ Cussons Nigeria added 85 kobo to close at N18.45. Oando rose by 51 kobo to close at N5.58 while Cadbury Nigeria gathered 34 kobo to close at N13.90 per share.

 

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