NSE LIVE! Equities open with N233b loss amidst rising selloff

The Nigerian stock market reopened on Monday with worsening price depreciation as increased sell  orders overwhelmed bargain-hunting, throwing the market into a five-hour loss of N233 billion.

Amidst concerns that the removal of Nigeria from the MSCI’s frontier market index may spark further depreciation in share prices, investors sought to rebalance their portfolios. Increased open market sale orders, which sought to close deal at any prevailing market price, overshadowed the demand and turned the market into a buyer’s market.

With 25 losers to 14 gainers, the All Share Index (ASI)-a value-based index that tracks prices of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), slumped by 2.68 per cent to close at 24,648.84 points as against the opening index of 25,328.07 points. With this, the average year-to-date return worsened to -13.94 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped by N233 billion to close at N8.479 trillion as against its opening value of N8.712 trillion.

Sectoral analysis indicated that most sector-based indices closed in the red. The NSE Banking Index recorded the highest loss of 3.8 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 2.8 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 1.7 per cent. On the positive side, the NSE Insurance Index meanwhile rose by 1.6 per cent while the NSE Oil & Gas Index inched up by 0.02 per cent.

Nigerian Breweries led the losers with a loss of N4.90 to close at N105. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) declined by 73 kobo to close at N14.07. Union Bank of Nigeria dropped by 54 kobo to close at N5.06. Zenith Bank lost 46 kobo to close at N10.50. Berger Paints slipped by 43 kobo to close at N8.52. Nigerian-German Chemical dropped by 41 kobo to close at N3.81. Guaranty Trust Bank lost 30 kobo to close at N14. Fidson Healthcare and Ikeja Hotel declined by 22 kobo each to close at N2.12 and N2.13 respectively. Stanbic IBTC Holdings dropped by 19 kobo to close at N13 while United Bank for Africa lost 16 kobo to close at N3.08 per share.

Read also: NSE LIVE! High-cap stocks drag equities down

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities said the negative market situation at the stock market was worsened by MSCI’s announcement that Nigeria may be excluded from its frontier market index as a result of the deterioration of foreign exchange market liquidity in Nigeria. It should be recalled that JP Morgan had removed Nigeria from its bond index six months ago.

“The disturbing news on MSCI delisting Nigeria from its Frontier market index is expected to pull the index into another episode of downtrend as the currency market challenges continue to hammer investors’ confidence. We expect panic selling to likely persist tomorrow as the market digest details of MSCI’s notification,” Afrinvest Securities.

Turnover was below recent average with the exchange of 225.28 million shares valued at N750.23 million in 3,058 deals. Low-priced stocks dominated the top activities chart. Equity Assurance led with a turnover of 44.98 million shares, FCMB Group followed with 28.59 million shares while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) recorded a turnover of 21.51 million shares. The three most active sectors were financial services, with 188.95 million shares; conglomerates, 21.72 million shares and consumer goods, which recorded a turnover of 5.40 million shares.

On the upside, Flour Mills of Nigeria recorded the highest gain of 93 kobo to close at N21.43. Nascon Allied Industries followed with a gain of N35 kobo to close at N7.65. E-Tranzact added 16 kobo to close at N3.55. Custodian and Allied rose by 10 kobo to close at N4.15 while AXA Mansard Insurance garnered 9.0 kobo to close at N

 

 

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