NSE LIVE! Equities show respite amidst continuing decline

The downtrend at the Nigerian stock market narrowed appreciably on Wednesday as more equities braced against the sustained decline, moderating the spread of the still negative overall market position.
With 18 gainers against 27 losers, the benchmark index’s decline slowed with a marginal loss of 0.07 per cent on Wednesday, compared with a decline of 0.29 per cent on Tuesday.
The All Share Index (ASI), the value-based common index that tracks prices of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), slipped to 29,032.44 points as against its opening index of 29,052.87 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities also dropped marginally from N9.985 trillion to close at N9.978 trillion. The average year-to-date return at the stock market now stands at -16.23%.
Losses remained widespread and were relatively of higher values than gains. But many analysts expected the market to showed steady resilience citing the significant undervaluation of several equities and prospects for bargain-hunting.
Most sectoral indices mirrored the benchmark index recording marginal losses. A rally in Oando however triggered a growth for the oil and gas sectoral index which rose by three basis points. The Consumer Goods Index declined by 0.6%. The NSE Insurance Index dropped by 0.1% . The NSE Banking Index and the NSE Industrial Goods Index slipped by three basis points and one basis point respectively.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities start new month with losses

“While we note that the earnings’ season is thinning, together with the moderation in losses, we expect the market to trade sideways in the session ahead,” said analysts at Afrinvest Securities.
Analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited said the downtrend reflected the continuous shift of funds from equities to fixed-income securities.
Total turnover yesterday stood at 181.6 million shares valued at N2.06 billion in 3,079 deals.
Mobil Oil Nigeria recorded the highest loss of N15.01 to close at N138.99. Nestle Nigeria followed with a loss of N7 to close at N814 while Seven-Up Bottling Company ranked third with a loss of N4.99 to close at N191.01.
On the upside, Guinness Nigeria led with a gain of N6.49 to close at N136.42. UAC of Nigeria followed with a gain of N1.25 to close at N26.41 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Oando rallied 94 kobo and 47 kobo to close at N19.85 and N6.98 respectively.

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