Business
NSE LIVE! Equities lose N425b in month-end profit-taking
After gathering N613 billion in capital gains last week, Nigerian equities opened this week to a massive profit-taking, which turned the stock market into an extreme buyers’ market. With nearly four in every five price changes ending in the negative, equities lost N425 billion within the five-hour trading session on Tuesday.
The last trading day of May showed widespread portfolio adjustments as investors sought to take profits from recent share price appreciation. The equities market had witnessed sustained price appreciation in recent weeks, with the market spiraling to a new high last week.
Aggregate market value of all quoted equities dropped to N9.501 trillion on Tuesday as against its opening value of N9.926 trillion, representing a loss of N425 billion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based common share index that tracks prices of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), slumped to 27,663.16 points as against its opening index of 28,902.25 points, representing average decline of 4.29 per cent.
With these, the average year-to-date return, which had opened the market with a modest positive gain of 0.9 per cent, closed Tuesday with negative return of -3.42 per cent.
Market analysts attributed the steep decline to a combination of profit-taking, month-end portfolio rebalancing and subsisting concerns on the clear-cut foreign exchange policy. The Central Bank of Nigeria (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.
“Investors’ sell pressure suppressed the equity market today,” FSDH Securities stated.
“We attribute today’s sharp decline to panic selling following unclear statement regarding the direction of the Naira after the Democracy Day Speech. We expect bearish sentiments to continue tomorrow,” Afrinvest Securities stated.
Read also: NSE Roundup! Investors gain N613b in 25 hours as equities soar
There were 39 losers to nine gainers with most highly capitalised stocks leading the losing streak. Forte Oil recorded the highest loss of N10.31 to close at N195.90. Dangote Cement followed with a loss of N8.12 to close at N167.01. Nigerian Breweries trailed with a loss of N7 to close at N135. Lafarge Africa declined by N6.44 to close at N76.57. Guinness Nigeria dropped by N5.49 to close at N104.32. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated lost N1.73 to close at N16.32. Zenith Bank dropped by N1.60 to close at N14.98. Guaranty Trust Bank slipped by N1.08 to close at N19.53. Flour Mills of Nigeria lost N1.07 to close at N21.45 while UAC of Nigeria dropped by N1.04 to close at N19.86 per share.
Turnover dropped below recent average with the exchange of 335.06 million shares valued at N3.15 billion in 4,309 deals. Low-priced banking stocks dominated the activities chart. Fidelity Bank recorded the highest turnover of 75.11 million shares valued at N99.89 million in 125 deals. FBN Holdings followed with a turnover of 70.01 million shares worth N277.63 million in 613 deals. Access Bank placed third with a turnover of 24.32 million shares worth N137.9 million in 99 deals.
On the upside, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria led the contrarian stocks with a modest gain of 50 kobo to close at N21. E-Tranzact followed with a gain of N45 to close at N5.46. University Press rose by 22 kobo to close at N4.64. Transnationwide Express chalked up 14 kobo to close at N1.66 while Continental Re added 5.0 kobo to close at N1.15 per share.
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