NSE LIVE! Equities end 9-day rally on Dangote Cement’s N179bn loss

After a successive rally in the past nine days, Nigerian equities suffered a reversal on Tuesday as investors turned to take profit on Dangote Cement Plc, which had reached its one-year high on Monday.
A sell pressure orchestrated by profit-taking transactions shaved off N178.9 billion on Dangote Cement, spilling into a net capital loss of N131 billion for the overall market position.

Dangote Cement is the most capitalised stock at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and it accounts for nearly two-thirds of total market capitalisation. Dangote Cement’s share price declined by N10.50 to close at N199.50 per share.

Aggregate market capitalisation of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped from opening value of N11.263 trillion to close at N11.132 trillion, indicating a loss of N131 billion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks prices at the Exchange, dropped by 1.16 per cent from opening index of 32,578.38 points to close at 32,200.38 points. The decline moderated the average year-to-date return to 19.82 per cent.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities open with N417bn gain

The underlying market sentiment meanwhile remained positive with more advancers than decliners. There were 33 advancers against 22decliners. Sectoral indices also underscored the continuing investors’ appetite for equities. The NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 0.9 per cent. The NSE Banking Index rose by 0.3 per cent while the NSE Oil & Gas Index inched up by 0.2 per cent. However, the NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 0.8 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index slipped by 0.2 per cent.

Mobil Oil Nigeria led the decliners with a loss of N31.16 to close at N288.56. Unilever Nigeria followed Dangote Cement with a loss of N1.70 to close at N35.79. Conoil dropped by N1.67 to close at N39.50. Eterna dipped by 31 kobo to close at N3.78. AXA Mansard Insurance and Guaranty Trust Bank dipped by 11 kobo each to close at N2.37 and N34 while African Prudential lost 10 kobo to close at N2.90 per share.

On the upside, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the advancers with a gain of N17.50 to close at N367.50. Nestle Nigeria rose by N10 to close at a high of N965. Seven-Up Bottling Company added N2.08 to close at N92.12. Lafarge Africa added N2 to close at N53. Flour Mills of Nigeria chalked up N1.21 to close at N26.72. Forte Oil added N1.02 to close at N48.02 per share. PZ Cussons Nigeria rose by 80 kobo to close at N19.80 while UAC of Nigeria rose by 75 kobo to close at N15.75 per share.

Total turnover was above average with the exchange of 744.99 million shares worth N6.52 billion in 7,841 deals. Low-priced stocks dominated the top activities chart. Diamond Bank led the activity chart with 133.5 million shares valued at N168.7 million. Fidelity Bank followed with 76.8 million shares worth N102.6 million while Access Bank placed third with 69.6 million shares valued at N652.1 million.

“Quite in line with our expectation, investors resorted to profit taking on some value stocks that witnessed continuous appreciations during the bullish run. Notwithstanding, we expect the profit taking to be transient as market breadth remains positive – reflecting subsisting strong appetite for equities across board – while performance continues to be dictated by improvements in the macroeconomic fundamentals,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

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