NSE LIVE! Equities suffer relapse amidst profit-taking

Nigerian equities recorded marginal decline on Tuesday as investors turned round to take profit on the recent streak of appreciation.

With 25 decliners to 13 advancers, the market traded on Tuesday largely under sell pressure.

The two main indices at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indicated average decline of 0.05 per cent, equivalent to a loss of N5 billion. Average year-to-date return now stands at -2.44 per cent.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities declined from N9.026 trillion to close at N9.021 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI)-the common value-based index that tracks prices at the Exchange, also slipped from 26,231.37 points to close at 26,217.54 points.

Sectoral indices showed that the overall negative market performance was driven largely by profit-taking activities in the financial services industry. The NSE Banking Index, which had outperformed other sector indices for the most part of the year, declined by 1.1 per cent.

The NSE Insurance Index also dropped by 0.3 per cent. However, the NSE Oil & Gas Index rose by 1.2 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index also rebounded with a gain of 0.3 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index inched up by 0.1 per cent.

Seven-Up Bottling Company led the decliners with a loss of N5.33 to close at N101.40. Nigerian Breweries followed with a loss of N2 to close at N142.50. Zenith Bank declined by 55 kobo to close at N15.40. NCR Nigeria lost 40 kobo to close at N7.71 while Custodian and Allied declined by 19 kobo to N3.63.

Total turnover stood at 187.70 million shares valued at N10.43 billion in 3,055 deals. Seplat Petroleum Development Company was the most active stock with 22.61 million shares worth N8.59 billion. United Capital followed with 22.43 million shares worth N74.1 million while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria recorded a turnover of 18.6 million shares worth N15.2 million.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities open with modest gain as CBN meets on monetary policies

On the positive side, Nestle Nigeria led the rally with a gain of N29 to close at N749. Seplat followed with a gain of N15 to close at N380. Guinness Nigeria rose by N2.50 to close at N71. UAC of Nigeria added 81 kobo to close at N17.13 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings rose by 66 kobo to close at N16.80 per share.

“The loss recorded today (Tuesday) as well as weak sentiment indicates profit taking activities in the market. As sentiment remains driven by uncertain macroeconomic variables, we urge retail investors with a short term perspective to stay cautious, while longer term investors might take advantage of current cheap market valuation to position in equities with significant upsides.

We expect market to trade sideways in subsequent trading sessions,” Afrinvest Securities, which trades on the Exchange, stated.

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