NSE LIVE! Equities lose N214b amidst sell pressure

Nigerian equities came under intense sell pressure on Tuesday as the negative average year-to-date return at the stock market worsened.

The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common index that tracks prices of all equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), dropped by 2.4 per cent to close at 25,277.29 points as against its opening index of 25,899.91 points. With this, the average year-to-date return worsened to -11.75 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped by N214 billion from its opening value of N8.909 trillion to close at N8.695 trillion.

Further analysis of groups and sectors showed widespread decline in share prices. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 2.5 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index declined by 2.0 per cent. The NSE Banking Index and the NSE Insurance Index dropped by 0.8 per cent each. Meanwhile, the NSE Oil and Gas Index played the contrarian with a gain of 0.3 per cent.

With 27 losers to 11 gainers, the steep decline was due to both losses recorded by highly capitalised stocks as well as small and mid-cap stocks.

Read also: NSE Roundup! Equities sustain rally amidst emerging stocks push

Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second largest stock, led the losers’ list with a loss of N5.87 to close at N111.83. Lafarge Africa followed with a loss of N3.95 to close at N77. Dangote Cement, NSE’s largest stock, declined by N1.95 to close at N162.05. Unilever Nigeria dropped by N1.42 to close at N29.50. Ashaka Cement slipped by N1.20 to close at N22.80. Flour Mills of Nigeria lost 46 kobo to close at N18.54. Nigerian German Chemicals dropped by 45 kobo to close at N4.22. Cement Company of Northern Nigeria declined by 43 kobo to close at N8.17. Transcorp Hotel lost 26 kobo to close at N4.98 while Ecobank Transnational Incorporated dropped by 23 kobo to close at N14.51 per share.

On the positive side, Total Nigeria led the gainers’ list with a gain of N6.49 to close at N146.50. PZ Cussons Nigeria followed with a gain of N1.11 to close at N23.90. Presco rose by 35 kobo to N34.60. Dangote Sugar Refinery chalked up 28 kobo to close at N5.98 while International Breweries gathered 20 kobo to close at N19 per share.

“Market sentiment of recent has been majorly driven by earnings releases but as the reporting season draws to a close, we expect that macro fundamentals will be anchoring sentiment,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer on the NSE, stated.

Turnover was around recent average with the exchange of 282.70 million shares valued at N1.34 billion in 3,225 deals. The three most active stocks were FCMB Holdings, with 60.20 million shares; Guaranty Trust Bank, 34.70 million shares and UBA, which recorded a turnover of 32.62 million shares. Expectedly, the financial services were the most active stocks with sectoral turnover of 242.46 million shares.

 

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