NSE LIVE! Equities suffer reversal with N74b loss

After a modest recovery on Wednesday broke the losing trend that started last weekend, Nigerian equities relapsed into the negative on Thursday as month-end portfolio rebalancing left most stocks lower.

With more sell orders, especially for highly capitalised stocks, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Thursday, the last day and trading session in June, with a loss of N74 billion, equivalent to average day-on-day loss of 0.72 per cent. The decline reduced the first-half average year-to-date return for Nigerian equities to 3.34 per cent.

The All Share Index (ASI), the common value-based index that benchmarks pricing trend at the NSE, slipped from 29,812.9 points to close at 29,597.79 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE declined from N10.239 trillion to close at N10.165 trillion.

Sectoral and group indices showed widespread selling sentiments across the sectors. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 0.8 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 0.6 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 0.9 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index depreciated by 0.5 per cent. On the positive side, the NSE Insurance Index appreciated by 0.7 per cent.

With 24 decliners to 21 advancers, the downtrend on Thursday was mainly orchestrated by losses recorded by several highly capitalised stocks. Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the decliners with a loss of N10 to close at N330. Forte Oil followed with a loss of N3.69 to close at N190.34. Nigerian Breweries dropped by N2.01 to close at N138. Dangote Cement lost N2 to close at N192. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated dropped by 51 kobo to close at N16.

Zenith Bank declined by 23 kobo to close at N15.77 per share. Champion Breweries dropped by 21 kobo to close at N4.25. UACN Property Development Company lost 18 kobo to close at N4.10. Nestle Nigeria dropped by 15 kobo to close at N850 while FBN Holdings slipped by 10 kobo to close at N3.89 per share.

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), the most capitalised financial services stock and fourth most capitalised quoted company in Nigeria, was the toast of investors on Thursday. Nearly one-third of total stakes on equities were on GTB as investors staked N1.53 billion on 66.34 million shares of GTB. Total turnover stood at 342.60 million shares valued at N4.65 billion in 4,078 deals. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated was the second most active stock with 41.66 million shares worth N666.58 million while AIICO placed third with 36.2 million shares worth N25.14 million.

On the upside, Guinness Nigeria led the advancers with a gain of N2.85 to close at N109.25. Conoil followed with a gain of N1.10 to close at N23.10. Union Dicon Salt added 78 kobo to close at N16.53. Berger Paints gathered 38 kobo to close at N8.05. Oando rose by 30 kobo to close at N6.50. Fidson Healthcare gathered 18 kobo to close at N2.45 per
share while Dangote Sugar Refinery added 10 kobo to close at N6.65 per share.

“We expect sentiment may stay soft tomorrow as initial excitement about foreign exchange (forex) reforms wanes. However, we do not rule out marginal uptrend as portfolio investors rebalance their positions for second half of 2016,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer on the NSE.

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