NSE LIVE! Nigerian Equities relapse with N50 billion loss

Nigerian equities suffered a relapse on Wednesday in what appeared to be a continuation of the topsy-turvy pricing trend that has dominated the market this week.

After a rally by highly capitalised stocks pushed the market up by N190 billion on Tuesday, a reversal in the pricing trend of many highly capitalised stocks orchestrated a loss of N50 billion on Wednesday.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) declined from its opening value of N8.697 trillion to close at N8.647 trillion. The All Share Index (ASI), the benchmark index that tracks share prices, also declined by 0.57 per cent from 25,129.27 points to close at 24,986.02 points. The average year-to-date return thus worsened to -7.03 per cent.

With 16 losers to 10 gainers, most sectoral indices also closed in the negative. The NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by 3.5 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index slipped by 2.5 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 0.1 per cent while the NSE Insurance Index closed flat. However, the NSE Consumer Goods Index rose by 3.0 per cent.
While there were more losers than gainers, the decline was particularly orchestrated by losses recorded by highly capitalised stocks. Seplat Petroleum Development Company led the losers with a loss of N20 to close at N380. Dangote Cement, NSE’s most capitalised stock, followed with a loss of N4.46 to close at N152.15.

Forte Oil lost N2.74 to close at N52.16. Lafarge Africa declined by N1.95 to close at N37.05. Ashaka Cement lost 89 kobo to close at N10.36. Eterna dipped by 31 kobo to N2.97 while Stanbic IBTC Holdings dropped by 23 kobo to close at N17.75 per share.

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On the upside, breweries continued their rallies with the Nigerian Breweries leading the pack with a gain of N6.65 to close at N139.80. Guinness Nigeria followed with a gain of N2.54 to close at N66.94. Unilever Nigeria rose by N1.40 to close at N29.40. Dangote Sugar Refinery added 27 kobo to close at N6 while Champion Breweries and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated chalked up 10 kobo each to close at N2.45 and N10.10 respectively.

Total turnover stood at 218.72 million shares valued at N3.90 billion in 3,191 deals. Stanbic IBTC Holdings was the most active stock with a turnover of 29.01 million shares valued at N515.11 million. Access Bank followed with 28.9 million shares valued at N185.8 million while Zenith Bank placed third with 24.03 million shares worth N350.97 million.

“As market continues to wait on macroeconomic signals, particularly on currency market reforms, we expect sentiment to remain soft notwithstanding positive earnings surprises,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer on the NSE, stated.

 

 

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