NSE LIVE! High-cap stocks slump as equities extend losses

In from Success Allantee …

Most highly capitalised stocks fell yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as widespread selling sentiments continued to haunt quoted equities. The losses by the high-cap stocks, which largely determined the overall direction of the market, orchestrated the second consecutive decline at the stock market.

With stocks such as Dangote Cement, Nigerian Breweries, Unilever Nigeria, Lafarge Africa, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Mobil Oil Nigeria leading the decliners, the benchmark index at the stock market, the All Share Index (ASI), slipped further by 0.16 per cent, raising the negative average year-to-date return to -9.93 per cent.

The ASI dropped from its opening index of 31,267.51 points to close at 31,216.72 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted companies also dropped marginally by N18 billion from N10.703 trillion to close at N10.685 trillion.

“We expect market performance in the succeeding sessions to retain current trend ahead of the outcome of the on-going Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting,” said analysts at Afrinvest Securities.

Mobil Oil Nigeria topped the 28-stock losers’ list with a drop of N2.82 to close at N153.18 per share. Nigerian Breweries, the second most capitalised company and most capitalised brewer at the NSE, followed with a drop of N1.15 to close at N129. Northern Nigeria Flour Mills dropped by 90 kobo to close at N17.15. Unilever Nigeria lost 78 kobo to close at N37.32. Dangote Cement, the most capitalised stock, lost 50 kobo to close at N170. Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Lafarge Africa also lost 50 kobo each to close at N22.99 and N99 respectively. Red Star Express declined by 22 kobo to close at N4.31. Ikeja Hotel dropped by 20 kobo to N3.82 while Flour Mills of Nigeria dwindled by 10 kobo to close at N29.90.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities relapse as selling pressure builds up again

Turnover moderated below recent average. A total of 208.5 million shares worth N3.24 billion were traded in 3,731 deals. Union Diagnostic Services, a 50-kobo penny stock, was the most active stocks with two cross deals for 70 million shares valued at N35 million. Access Bank placed second on the activity chart with a turnover of 17.49 million shares worth N90.91 million in 101 deals. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria ranked third with 13.26 million shares valued at N31.11 million in 160 deals.

Meanwhile, Seven-Up Bottling Company led the 18 contrarian stocks with a gain of N9 to close at N194. Beta Glass followed with a gain of N1.80 to close at N39.50. Berger Paints added 95 kobo to close at N10.31. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated rose by 29 kobo to close at N19.89 while Nascon Industries gathered 25 kobo to close at N6.90 per share.

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