NSE LIVE! Equities stumble further as inflation hurts

Nigerian equities opened on Monday on a negative note, extending the downtrend that had marked transactions for the most part of this month. The decline was further compounded by the release of the June 2016 inflation rate, which trended to a 10-year high at 16.5 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dropped by N24 billion from N9.893 trillion to close at N9.869 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI) also declined simultaneously by 0.25 per cent to close at 28,733.90 points as against its opening index of 28,805.45 points.

Average year-to-date return at the stock market pared down to 0.32 per cent, representing negative inflation-adjusted
return of about -16.2 per cent.

With nearly three losers for every gainer, the market downtrend was driven by broad sell-off as well as losses recorded by some highly capitalised stocks, especially in the fast moving consumer goods companies.

Sectoral indices showed broad underlying selling sentiments. The NSE Industrial Goods Index and the NSE Insurance Index declined by 2.1 per cent each. The NSE Consumer Goods Index slipped by 0.4 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 0.3 per cent. Meanwhile, the NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 2.1 per cent.

Read also: Inflation in two-month rise to 16.5% 

Lafarge Africa led the 29-stock losers’ list with a loss of N3.38 to close at N63.22. Nestle Nigeria dropped by N2 to close at N850. Seven-Up Bottling Company declined by N1.60 to close at N140.45. Nigerian Breweries lost 95 kobo to close at N133.08. International Breweries slipped by 35 kobo to close at N18.65 while Cadbury Nigeria dropped by 30
kobo to N16.

Total turnover stood at 315.57 million shares valued at N1.72 billion in 3,976 deals. The three most active stocks were: Skye Bank, with 138.25 million shares valued at N88.29 million; FBN Holdings, with 36.88 million shares valued at N136.13 million while United Bank for Africa recorded a turnover of 30.72 million shares worth N140.04 million.

On the upside, Forte Oil led the 10-stock gainers’ list with a gain of N14.62 to close at N194.90. GlaxoSmithKline

Consumer Nigeria followed with a gain of 55 kobo to close at N18.60. Okomu Oil Palm added 22 kobo to close at N31.50.

Access Bank rose by 18 kobo to N5.58 while African Prudential Registrars rose by 11 kobo to close at N3.20 per share.

“We are of the view that today’s decline was as a result of profit taking in the large-cap stocks. We expect trading sentiment in subsequent sessions to be driven by half-year 2016 corporate earnings,” analysts at Afrinvest Securities stated in post-trading note.

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