NSE LIVE! Equities reopen with N105bn loss

Nigerian equities reopened after the Easter Holiday on Tuesday to a major selloff as investors sought to reduce shareholding concentration in large-cap stocks.

With highly capitalised stocks in the consumer goods, industrial goods, oil and gas and banking sectors headlining the selloff, aggregate market value of all quoted equities decline by N105 billion.

The benchmark index at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), the All Share Index (ASI), indicated a decline of 1.19 per cent to close at 25,207.07 points as against its opening index of 25,510.01 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped from N8.827 trillion to close at N8.722 trillion. The slump built up the negative average year-to-date return to 6.20 per cent.

Read also: NSE RoundUp! Equities lose N82bn in profit-taking week

Most sectoral indices also closed in the negative. The NSE Banking Index declined by 1.4 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 1.1 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index slipped by 0.7 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index dipped by 0.4 per cent. Meanwhile, the NSE Oil & Gas Index played the contrarian with a positive return of 0.5 per cent.

Large-cap stocks led the 18-stock losers’ list. Nestle Nigeria, NSE’s highest-priced stock, led the losers with a loss of N21.93 to close at N728.07. Total Nigeria followed with a loss of N7 to close at N263. Dangote Cement, the most capitalised quoted company, declined by N4 to close at N160. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated lost 41 kobo to close at N7.79. Oando dropped by 27 kobo to close at N5.32. Union Bank of Nigeria dipped by 26 kobo to close at N4.98. Fidelity Bank declined by 22 kobo to close at 80 kobo while Guaranty Trust Bank, the most capitalised banking stock, slipped by 20 kobo to close at N24.50 per share.

Total turnover stood at 254.95 million shares valued at N2.45 billion in 2,854 deals. Banking stocks dominated the top activity chart. Diamond Bank led with a turnover of 51.81 million shares worth N42.33 million. Guaranty Trust Bank followed with 40.88 million shares worth N1.0 billion while FBN Holdings placed third with 20.66 million shares valued at N67.81 million.

On the positive side, Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the 14-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N10 to close at N400. Forte Oil followed with a gain of 50 kobo to close at N44.50. Dangote Flour Mills rose by 18 kobo to N4.40. FBN Holdings added 16 kobo to close at N3.36 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings chalked up 14 kobo to close at N18.90 per share.

“Barring any negative earnings surprises, we expect bargain hunting to lift market performance in tomorrow’s trading session,” Afrinvest Securities stated.

 

 

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