NSE LIVE! Equities drop by 0.17% in third straight negative session

For the third consecutive trading session, Nigerian equities on Thursday closed in the negative as continuing sell pressure in the consumer goods sector continued to shape the overall market position.

The two main benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that the market declined by an average of 0.17 per cent on Thursday, equivalent to a net loss of N15 billion.

The decline was largely driven by depreciation in share prices of large-cap stocks in the consumer goods and industrial goods sectors, including Nestle Nigeria, NSE’s highest-priced stock; Dangote Cement, NSE’s most capitalised stock and Nigerian Breweries, the second most capitalised quoted company.

The All Share Index (ASI)-value-based common index that tracks prices at the stock market, declined to 26,201.60 points as against its opening index of 26,245.34 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also dropped from N9.030 trillion to close at N9.015 trillion. With this, the negative average year-to-date return inched up to -2.50 per cent.

While the pricing trend showed evenly spread bargain-hunting and selloff with 19 gainers and losers each, the large-cap stocks weighed on their sectoral indices.

The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 0.3 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 0.2 per cent. However, the NSE Insurance index rose by 0.42 per cent. The NSE Banking Index gained 0.4 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index appreciated by 0.10 per cent.

Nestle Nigeria led the losers with a loss of N3 to close at N752. Forte Oil followed with a loss of N2 to close at N67. Dangote Cement declined by N1 to close at N167. Nigerian Breweries dropped by 60 kobo to close at N142. International Breweries declined by 48 kobo to close at N17.50.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities extend losing streak with 0.13% drop

Berger Paints dropped by 32 kobo to close at N6.08. Nascon Allied Industries declined by 26 kobo to close at N7.25. Oando and Vitafoam lost 11 kobo each to close at N4.58 and N2.27 while Diamond Bank dropped by 10 kobo to close at N1.09 per share.

Total turnover stood at 196.46 million shares valued at N2.61 billion in 3,317 deals. Access Bank was the most active with 31.99 million shares valued at N224.09 million. Diamond Bank followed with 28.4 million shares worth N31.5 million while United Capital traded 24.1 million shares valued at N80.9 million.

On the upside, Total Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N9.52 to close at N294.97. Mobil Oil Nigeria followed with a gain of N3.50 to close at N264. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated chalked up 41 kobo to close at N10.10. Guinness Nigeria added 40 kobo to close at N64.05.

Dangote Sugar Refinery rose by 27 kobo to close at N6.35 per share. Flour Mills of Nigeria rose by 20 kobo to close at N18.40. UACN Property Development Company added 13 kobo to close at N2.75 while Presco chalked up 12 kobo to close at N44.07 per share.

“We expect the current bearish mood to prevail in the last trading day of the week as investors continue to adopt cautious approach in view of macroeconomic developments bothering on foreign exchange. However, we reiterate that the current valuations still provides an attractive entry points for risk tolerant investors,” SCM Capital, a dealer on the NSE, stated.

 

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