Equities lose N100b in opening trades

Nigerian equities opened this week with a loss of N100 billion as sell pressure continued to undermine market valuations of several large-cap stocks.

Benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the first trading session on Monday with average decline of 0.81 per cent, equivalent to net capital depreciation of N100 billion.

The momentum of activities at the Exchange slowed down considerably as both volume and value of activities fell below recent average. The sustained decline also pared the average year-to-date return for Nigerian equities to 32.71 per cent.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the main price index at the Exchange declined to close at 35,664.94 points as against its opening index of 35,957.24 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities dropped correspondingly from its opening value of N12.393 trillion to close at N12.293 trillion.

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With 24 decliners to 20 advancers, most sectoral indices closed negative. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 1.0 per cent. The NSE Banking Index and NSE Consumer Goods Index declined by 0.4 per cent each while the NSE Insurance Index slipped by 0.1 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index played the contrarian with a gain of 0.7 per cent.

Total turnover dropped below average with the exchange of 114.76 million shares valued at N2.17 billion in 3,232 deals. Zenith Bank was the most active stock with 19.8 million shares valued at N463.5 million. Access Bank followed with 12.06 million shares worth N117.03 million while UACN Property Development Company placed third with 10.38 million shares valued at N30.39 million.

Further price analysis showed that large-cap stocks dominated the top decliners’ list. Nestle Nigeria-NSE’s highest-priced stock, led the decliners with a loss of N10 to close at N1,210. Dangote Cement-NSE’s most capitalised stock, followed with a drop of N5 to close at N210. Okomu Oil Palm dropped by N3.10 to close at N59.90. Flour Mills of Nigeria dropped by N1 to close at N29. Guaranty Trust Bank lost 74 kobo to close at N37.80. Guinness Nigeria declined by 53 kobo to close at N95.80. Mobil Oil Nigeria dropped by 50 kobo to close at N170. Presco dipped by 48 kobo to close at N64.50 while Berger Paints dropped by 48 kobo to close at N64.50 per share.

On the positive side, Total Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N2.02 to close at N235. UAC of Nigeria followed with a gain of 40 kobo to close at N15. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated rose by 32 kobo to close at N18. Nascon Allied Industries chalked up 30 kobo to close at N13.30 while Newrest ASL and Forte Oil rose by 29 kobo each to close at N6.25 and N49.99 respectively.

“The weak sentiment in the market suggests that investors are trading cautiously in anticipation of third quarter 2017 company results. Thus, current performance is expected to be sustained in trading sessions ahead,” Afrinvest Securities-a Lagos-based dealer at the NSE, stated.

 

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