NSE LIVE! Equities lose N259b as sell pressure continues

After losing N425 billion in opening trades on Tuesday, Nigerian equities suffered further steep losses on Wednesday as widespread sell pressure shaved off N259 billion from market capitalisation.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped from N9.501 trillion to close at N9.242 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based index that tracks prices of all quoted equities, dropped by 2.72 per cent from 27,663.16 points to close at 26,910.23 points.

The two-day decline pushed the average year-to-date return, which had opened the week with a modest positive return of 0.9 per cent, deep into negative at -6.05 per cent.

With 37 losers to eight gainers, the market situation showed widespread selling sentiments with banking stocks at the worst end of the depreciation. Sectoral analysis showed that the NSE Banking Index, which tracks the banking sector, recorded the highest drop of 6.9 per cent, after the two most capitalised banking stocks-Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank lost 9.6 per cent and 9.2 per cent respectively.    The NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 2.9 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 1.5 per cent. The NSE Oil and Gas Index slipped by 1.3 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index dipped by 0.8 per cent.

Market analysts blamed the steep decline on a combination of uncertainties in the guided flexible foreign exchange policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) last week, month-end portfolio rebalancing and profit-taking transactions. The CBN had last week announced the adoption of flexible foreign exchange policy. However, the detailed guidelines on the implementation of the flexible exchange rate have not been released.

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Nigerian Breweries led the losers with a loss of N6.70 to close at N128.30. Guinness Nigeria followed with a loss of N5.21 to close at N99.11. Lafarge Africa declined by N3.17 to close at N73.40. MRS Oil dropped by N1.82 to close at N34.71. Stanbic IBTC Holdings lost N1.63 to close at N15.18. Zenith Bank declined by N1.38 to close at N13.60. Flour Mills of Nigeria dropped by N1.03 to close at N20.42. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria lost N1 to close at N20 while Oando dropped by 68 kobo to close at N6.45 per share.

“We expect the current bearish trend in the market to continue as investors take profit following the impressive gains recorded in the previous week. However, we do not rule out the prospect of a change in tides, should the apex bank announce the expected modalities for a more flexible foreign exchange rate regime as indicated last week,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer on the NSE, stated.

Total turnover stood at 352.29 million shares valued at N3.85 billion in 5,024 deals. Zenith Bank was the most active stock with a turnover of 56.73 million shares valued at N770.38 million. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with a turnover of 39.46 million shares worth N696.6 million while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria recorded a turnover of 30.47 million shares valued at N37.24 million.

On the positive side, Cadbury Nigeria led the gainers with a gain of N1.52 to close at N18.37. Okomu Oil Palm rose by N1.03 to close at N30.05. Union Dicon Salt added 59 kobo to lose at N12.46. E-Tranzact gathered 42 kobo to close at N5.88 while UACN Property Development Company chalked up 20 kobo to close at N4.22 per share.

 

 

 

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