NSE LIVE! Equities slip to new lows as global pressure mounts

After dropping to three-year low last week, Nigerian equities again dropped to new lows yesterday as concerns mounted that the expected increase of interest rate by the United States of America’s Federal Reserve would negatively impacted the dwindling foreign capital flow to the Nigerian capital market.

Foreign portfolio investors accounted for more than two-quarters of turnover on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), and their buy and sell orders have been known to colour the overall market situation at the Nigerian stock market.

Average benchmark index at the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), dropped below its 27,000 basis points to close at 26,950.76 points as against its opening index of 27,179.28 points, representing a day-on-day loss of 0.84 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped to N9.266 trillion compared with its opening value of N9.345 trillion, representing a loss of N79 billion. The decline further worsened the average year-to-date return to -22.24 per cent.

Analysts at FSDH Securities said the market performance partly reflected fears that the US Fed might soon increase interest rate, luring away foreign fund managers from emerging markets.

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Cowry Asset Management Limited noted that the decline was driven by market-wide sell offs with nearly three decliners to every advancer.
“The persistent dip in market performance buttresses the need for investors to stay cautious especially in the short term, even as we consider the current prices attractive for medium to long term investment positioning,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based securities firm, stated.

The decline was orchestrated by losses by highly capitalised stocks. Nestle Nigeria led the 39-stock losers’ list with a loss of N10.30 to close at N800. Guinness Nigeria followed with a loss of N5.45 to close at N200. Seplat Petroleum Development Company dropped by N3.49 to close at N206.51. Nigerian Breweries lost N1.90 to close at N117.10. UAC of Nigeria declined by N1.07 to close at N22.61. Dangote Cement lost N1.05 to close at N158.95. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria and Okomu Oil Palm dropped by N1 each to close at N35 and N28 respectively. Stanbic IBTC Holdings lost 61 kobo to close at N15.50 while Ashaka Cement dropped by 51 kobo to close at N22.49 per share.
Total turnover stood at 189.32 million shares valued at N3.17 billion in 3,265 deals. United Bank for Africa was the most active stock with a turnover of 20.29 million shares worth N76.37 million.

On the upside, Unilever Nigeria led 13 other stocks on the gainers’ list, rising by N2.05 to close at N44.05. Julius Berger Nigeria rose by N1.89 to close at N39.70. Flour Mills of Nigeria added N1.02 to close at N22.02. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated rose by 74 kobo to close at N16.64 while Presco gathered 20 kobo to close at N32.50 per share.

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