NSE LIVE! High-cap stocks drag equities to N45bn loss

After rallying net capital gain of N166 billion last week, Nigerian equities opened this week with a string of profit-taking as investors sought to monetise capital gains. The sell pressure on large-cap stocks overwhelmed the larger number of advancers, leaving the equities market with a net capital depreciation of N45 billion.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common index that tracks share prices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), declined by 0.37 per cent to close on Monday at 35,358.73 points as against its opening index of 35,488.81 points.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also dropped correspondingly from its opening value of N12.234 trillion to close at N12.189 trillion. The decline moderated the average year-to-date return to 31.57 per cent.
With 19 advancers against 17 decliners, the decline was driven largely by losses recorded by some highly capitalised stocks including Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries and Guaranty Trust Bank.

Read also: NSE RoundUp! Investors increase stake as Nigerian equities rally N166bn gain

Most sectoral indices closed in the negative, underlining the losses recorded by the influential large-cap stocks. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 1.1 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 0.8 per cent while the NSE Banking Index slipped by 0.5 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index appreciated by 0.3 per cent while NSE Insurance Index inched up by 0.1 per cent.

Nestle Nigeria-the highest-priced stock at the Exchange, led the decliners with a loss of N5 to close at N1,225. Nigerian Breweries-the second most capitalised company, dropped by N3.01 to close at N168. Lafarge Africa declined by N1.48 to close at N50. United Bank for Africa lost 27 kobo to close at N8.70 while Guaranty Trust Bank-the most capitalised banking stock, dipped by 10 kobo to close at N39.50 per share.

On the upside, Total Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N6 to close at N231. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria rose by 60 kobo to close at N22. Newrest ASL appreciated by 34 kobo to close at N7.16. Custodian and Allied rose by 17 kobo to close at N3.63. Eterna added 16 kobo to close at N3.46 while Dangote Flour Mills and Fidson Healthcare chalked up 15 kobo each to close at N6.35 and N3.15 respectively.

The momentum of activities however slowed down considerably with the exchange of 107.14 million shares valued at N1.37 billion in 2,848 deals. The three most active stocks were Meyer, with 20 million shares; FCMB Group, 9.57 million shares and Niger Insurance, which recorded a turnover of 8.39 million shares.

“Despite the profit-taking which dragged the market, we expect performance to turn positive before the end of the week as investors take position ahead of third quarter 2017 company scorecards releases,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

 

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