NSE LIVE! Banks, cement stocks drag equities to N42bn loss

Sustained selloff in the shares of many leading banks and cement-manufacturing companies exerted further pressure on the tenuous market situation at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). For the second consecutive trading session, quoted equities closed in the negative as investors sought to lock in profit and rebalance their portfolios.

With 17 decliners to 14 advancers, key indices at the Exchange showed a day-on-day decline of 0.46 per cent, equivalent to a loss of N42 billion. The decline on Wednesday built up the two-day average year-to-date return to -1.4 per cent.

The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based index that tracks prices at the NSE, dropped from 26,616.89 points to close at 26,495.04 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also declined correspondingly from N9.158 trillion to close at N9.116 trillion.

All sectoral indices closed in the negative, showing the spread of the negative sentiment driving share prices. The NSE Banking Index declined by 1.6 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 1.0 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index lost 0.6 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index dropped by 0.46 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index closed flat.

Price movement analysis showed that the downtrend was driven largely by losses recorded by some highly capitalised companies in the banking, oil and gas and industrial goods sectors. Guaranty Trust Bank led losers’ list with a loss of N1.10 to close at N22.90. Lafarge Africa followed with a loss of 95 kobo to close at N40. Forte Oil dropped by 62 kobo to close at N83.60. Ashaka Cement declined by 59 kobo to close at N11.43. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated lost 23 kobo to close at N9.54. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria declined by 20 kobo to close at N4.55 per share. Oando dropped by 17 kobo to close at N4.30. Dangote Sugar Refinery lost 12 kobo to close at N5.99 while FBN Holdings slipped by 7.0 kobo to close at N3.33 per share.

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On the upside, Flour Mills of Nigeria led with a gain of 49 kobo to close at N18.49. Zenith Bank rose by 15 kobo to close at N14.55. UACN Property Development Company added 13 kobo to close at N2.88. Vitafoam Nigeria rose by 12 kobo to close at N2.54. Africa Prudential Registrar chalked up 9.0 kobo to close at N3 per share.United Capital added 8.0 kobo to close at N2.89 while United Bank for Africa (UBA) garnered 6.0 kobo to close at N4.51 per share.

Total turnover stood at 602 million shares valued at N1.20 billion in 2,150 deals. Unity Kapital was the most active stock with a cross deal for 435.96 million ordinary shares valued at N335.69 million. Omoluabi Savings and Loans followed with 104 million shares worth N83.3 million while UBA placed third with 9.23 million shares valued at N41.67 million.

“Given the bearish sentiment in the market and with little fundamental drivers to support performance, we expect the benchmark index to continue to post losses until bargain opportunities surface,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer on the NSE, stated in post-trading review.

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