Business
NSE LIVE! Equities lose N119b as profit-taking continues
Nigerian equities again came under sell pressure on Monday as most investors opted to take profits from recent capital gains, tilting the demand-supply balance to the negative. With two decliners for every advancer, benchmark indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) showed widespread profit-taking transactions, especially among large-cap stocks that had led the rallies in the past seven trading sessions.
Benchmark indices at the Exchange indicated average day-on-day decline of 0.88 per cent, equivalent to net capital depreciation of N119 billion. This depressed the average year-to-date return to 44.80 per cent.
The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common index that tracks share prices at the Exchange, dropped to 38,913.99 points as against its opening index of 39,257.53 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities at the NSE consequently declined from its opening value of N13.672 trillion to close at N13.553 trillion.
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Most sectoral indices also closed negative. The NSE Banking Index recorded above average decline of 2.0 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 1.4 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index depreciated by 1.1 per cent. On the positive side, the NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 1.1 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index appreciated by 0.7 per cent.
There were 28 decliners to 14 advancers. Dangote Cement-the most capitalised quoted company, led thedecliners with a loss of N4.10 to close at N240.90. Nigerian Breweries-the second most capitalised quotedcompany, followed with a drop of N2 to close at N143. Unilever Nigeria declined by N1.11 to close at N40.50. Stanbic IBTC Holdings dropped by N1 to close at N42. Presco lost 89 kobo to close at N68.41. Zenith Bank dropped by 88 kobo to close at N26.03 while Flour Mills of Nigeria and UAC of Nigeria declined by 81 kobo each to close at N34.19 and N16.70 respectively.
On the upside, Nestle Nigeria-the highest-priced quoted company, led the advancers with a gain of N49.92 to close at N1,460. Mobil Oil Nigeria followed with a gain of N15.14 to close at N174.96. Total Nigeria rose by N1.99 to close at N230. Nascon Allied Industries added 89 kobo to close at N18.74. Dangote Sugar Refinery chalked up 66 kobo to close at N20.69. Cadbury Nigeria rallied 45 kobo to close at N16.35 while Dangote Flour Mills added 26 kobo to close at N11.66 per share.
Turnover also declined by 34 per cent with the exchange of 350.6 million shares valued at N4.9 billion. FBN Holdings was the most active stock with a turnover of 61.27 million shares valued at N553.14 million. Zenith Bank followed with 35.32 million shares valued at N928.74 million while Diamond Bank placed third with 34.08 million shares valued at N47.58 million.
Analysts were unanimous the downtrend was largely due to profit-taking tendency as investors seek to profit from the bullishness in previous trading sessions.
“Profit taking is likely to be sustained till midweek. However, as year-end approaches, we expect market activity and investors’ sentiments to be positive driven by portfolio rebalancing by fund managers,” FSDH Securities stated.
Afrinvest Securities however maintains “a positive outlook in the near term as fund managers return to strategic weightings during year-end rebalancing cycle”.
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