NSE LIVE! Equities relapse with N17bn loss

Nigerian equities suffered a relapse on Thursday as uncertainties over macroeconomic outlook and early earnings warnings continue to drive transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Quoted equities recorded average decline of 0.19 per cent, equivalent to net capital loss of N17 billion on Thursday, extending the unstable pricing trend that had marked transactions so far this week.

Nigerian equities had reopened on Tuesday, after the Easter Holidays, with a loss of N105 billion. Bargain-hunting however lifted the market to a modest gain of N43 billion on Wednesday. With the decline on Thursday, the negative average year-to-date return stood at -5.92 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities declined from its opening value of N8.765 trillion to close at N8.748 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based common benchmark index for the market, also declined from its opening index of 25,331.77 points to close at 25,282.75 points.

With 16 gainers to 15 losers, the market traded on almost a balance of profit-taking and bargain-hunting but losses recorded by highly capitalised stocks weighed on the negative side. The decline was largely due to losses recorded by large-cap stocks such as Seven-Up Bottling Company, FBN Holdings, Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and Okomu Oil Palm.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities recover amidst bargain-hunting

Most sectoral indices also closed in the negative, underlining the losses recorded by the sectoral leaders. The NSE Industrial Goods Index and the NSE Banking Index declined by 0.3 per cent each while the NSE Insurance Index slipped by 0.1 per cent. Meanwhile, the NSE Oil & Gas index rose by 0.5 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index inched up by 0.1 per cent.

Seven-Up Bottling Company led the losers with a loss of N5.24 to close at N99.66. Okomu Oil Palm dropped by N2.49 to close at N47.39. Dangote Cement lost N1 to close at N159. Nascon Allied Industries declined by 70 kobo to close at N7.74 while UAC of Nigeria dropped by 50 kobo to close at N14.10.

On the upside, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the gainers with a gain of N5 to close at N405. Nigerian Breweries rose by N1 to close at N124. Stanbic IBTC Holdings added 49 kobo to close at N19.50. Nestle Nigeria chalked up 30 kobo to close at N750.30 while Africa Prudential rose by 12 kobo to N2.53 per share.

Total turnover volume however declined by 54.11 per cent to 147.89 million shares valued at N836.84 million in 2,578 deals. Transactions in the shares of Transcorp topped the activity chart with 28.07 million shares valued at N25.67 billion. Diamond Bank followed with 24.98 million shares worth N21.78 million while FCMB Group placed third with 13.8 million shares valued at N13.8 million.

 

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