NSE LIVE! Equities continue on downtrend with N93bn loss

Nigerian equities depreciated further on Tuesday as investors continued their portfolio realignment and profit-taking in early adjustments for the third quarter corporate earnings.

Benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated average decline of 0.75 per cent, equivalent to net capital loss of N93 billion.

With 28 decliners against 18 advancers, the downtrend was orchestrated by considerable sell pressure across the sectors, especially within the large-cap stocks. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities dropped from its opening value of N12.293 trillion to close at N12.200 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks share prices at the Exchange, declined by 0.75 per cent from 35,664.94 points to close at 35,397.52 points.The average year-to-date return consequently declined to 31.71 per cent.

All sectoral indices closed negative with the exception of the NSE Oil & Gas Index which played the contrarian with a gain of 2.1 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 2.2 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 1.9 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index dipped by 1.5 per cent while the NSE Banking Index slipped by 0.6 per cent.

Nestle Nigeria-NSE’s highest-priced stock, led the decliners with a loss of N59..80 to close at N1, 150.20. Nigerian Breweries-the second most capitalised stock at the Exchange, followed with a drop of N4.45 to close at N180.05. Lafarge Africa declined by N2.01 to close at N50.99. Flour Mills of Nigeria dropped by N1.45 to close at N27.55. CAP and Dangote Cement-NSE’s most capitalised stock, lost N1 each to close at N33 and N209 respectively.

Presco dropped by 51 kobo to close at N63.99. Forte Oil lost 38 kobo to close at N49.61. Guinness Nigeria dropped by 30 kobo to close at N95.50 while Guaranty Trust Bank dropped by 28 kobo to close at N37.52 per share.

On the positive side, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the advancers with a gain of N22.89 to close at N480.79. Okomu Oil Palm rose by N2.99 to close at N62.89. International Breweries added N2.43 to close at N38. Unilever Nigeria rose by N2 to close at N42. Stanbic IBTC Holdings gathered N1.95 to close at N41.20. May & Baker Nigeria rose by 14 kobo to close at N3.03 while Nigerian Aviation Handling Company chalked up 12 kobo to close at N3.22 per share.

Total turnover stood at 373.49 million shares valued at N5.77 billion in 4,193 deals. Banking stocks were the most active. Diamond Bank led the activities chart with 130.73 million shares worth N150.59 million. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 50.15 million shares worth N1.9 billion while Zenith Bank ranked third with 39.30 million shares worth N900.07 million.

Read also: Firm drags Diamond Bank to court for breach of contract worth $45m

Market analysts remained optimistic that the price depreciation in recent period is primarily driven by profit-taking and portfolio readjustments as both corporate earnings projection and macroeconomic outlook support renewed rally in the latter period of the year.

“We maintain our view that the current downtrend in the market would not persist beyond the short term as we expect investor sentiment to remain largely driven by improvements in macroeconomic fundamentals in addition to expectations of positive third quarter 2017 corporate earnings reports,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities-a Lagos-based dealer at the NSE, stated.

 

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