NSE LIVE! Equities lose N74bn as sell pressure mounts on FMCGs

For the sixth consecutive trading session, Nigerian equities closed Tuesday on a negative note over concerns on possible constrained earnings of major fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) companies.

While the market appeared to show sign of imminent rally with more gainers than losers, sell pressure on leading FMCGs overshadowed the overall market situation.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by N74 billion to close at N8.663 trillion as against its opening value of N8.737 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the common value-based index that tracks prices at the Exchange, declined from 25,244.29 points to close at 25,032.17 points, indicating average day-on-day decline of 0.84 per cent. Average year-to-date return thus worsened to -6.86 per cent.

With 15 gainers to 14 losers, the negative overall market position was largely driven by losses recorded by highly capitalised FMCGs including Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria and Unilever Nigeria.

Sectoral indices also underlined the sell pressure on consumer goods stocks. The NSE Consumer Goods Index recorded the highest decline of 3.3 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 0.75 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index and NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 0.2 per cent each. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 0.84 per cent.

Nestle Nigeria, NSE’s highest-priced stock, led the decliners with a loss of N24.40 to close at N600. Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second most capitalised quoted company, followed with a loss of N5.93 to close at N112.82. CAP dropped by N1.57 to close at N30.43. Guinness Nigeria and Unilever Nigeria dropped by N1 each to close at N64 and N34 respectively. Zenith Bank declined by 60 kobo to close at N15.14. Eterna lost 17 kobo to close at N3.24 while Vitafoam Nigeria and Access Bank dropped by 10 kobo each to close at N2.08 and N6.70 respectively.

Many analysts have expressed concerns over the sluggish sales by FMCGs and the decline in profitability as consumer goods companies struggle with rising costs amidst slowing consumer purchasing power. The third quarter results of most FMCGs had shown similar trend of weak sales and declining profit.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities suffer N33b loss as pressure mounts on Nigerian Breweries

On the positive side, Forte Oil recovered with a gain of by N2.70 to close at N56.70. PZ Cussons Nigeria followed with a gain of 57 kobo to close at N12.16. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria added 50 kobo to close at N14.75. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated gathered 30 kobo to close at N9.80. Dangote Flour Mills rose by 13 kobo to close at N4.10 per share. FBN Holdings rose by 11 kobo to N3.24 while Dangote Sugar Refinery and Oando chalked up 10 kobo each to close at N6.10 and N4.80 respectively.

Total turnover stood at 144.88 million shares valued at N1.91 billion in 2,868 deals. DN Tyre and Rubber was the most active stock with 21.2 million shares valued at N10.6 million. Sterling Bank followed with 16.7 million shares worth N11.7 million while Access Bank placed third with 14.4 million shares valued at N96.5 million.

“Notwithstanding the weak performance of the market today (Tuesday), we suspect a shift in sentiment in subsequent sessions. This conclusion is drawn from today’s market breadth and activity performance which suggest investors are hunting for bargains in the mid and small-cap segments,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based broker-dealer at the Exchange stated..

 

 

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