NSE RoundUp! Nigerian equities lose N71bn amidst global decline

Nigerian equities witnessed a reversal in the immediate past week as macroeconomic concerns dampened investors’ appetite for quoted shares. Despite increasing inflow of corporate earnings reports and dividend recommendations, most equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) still closed on the negative, reechoing the downtrend that marked global share prices during the week.

The benchmark index for the Nigerian stock market, the All Share Index (ASI), recorded a week-on-week decline of 0.77 per cent, equivalent to a net capital loss of N71 billion. In a week that saw tepid increase in momentum of activities, there were more than two decliners for every advancer, which showed that the transactions were driven more by the buyers’ prices rather than sellers’ quotes. Not less than five companies announced their earnings and dividend recommendations for the immediate past year last week. But corporate earnings have so far failed to sustain a considerable rally at the stock market.

The ASI declined from its week’s opening index of 25,653.16 points to close the week at 25,454.93 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the NSE dropped from its week’s opening value of N8.878 trillion to close at N8.807 trillion. There were 16 gainers against 35 losers during the week with the larger chunk of equities, 126 stocks, still stagnant at same price. In the previous week, there were 31 gainers, 22 losers and 124 flat stocks.

Sectoral indices showed widespread selling sentiments across the sectors with nearly all the indices closing on the downside. The NSE Oil and Gas Index recorded the highest week-on-week loss of 3.18 per cent. The NSE Banking Index followed with a drop of 2.08 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index declined by 1.11 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index slipped by 0.31 per cent while the NSE 30 Index, which tracks the 30 most capitalised stocks at the stock market, dropped by 0.70 per cent.

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Guinness Nigeria led the losers, in percentage terms, with a drop of 9.77 per cent to close at N60. Seplat Petroleum Development Company trailed with a loss of 9.73 per cent to close at N359.28. Diamond Bank declined by 8.51 per cent to 86 kobo. UACN Property Development Company lost 8.42 per cent to close at N1.74. Africa Prudential Registrars dropped by 8.40 per cent to close at N2.29 while UAC of Nigeria declined by 7.79 per cent to close at N12.91 per share.

On the other hand, Lafarge Africa, which announced a dividend per share of N1.05, led the gainers with a gain of 13.92 per cent to close at N41.01. Fidson Healthcare trailed with a gain of 13.48 per cent to close at N1.01. Livestock Feeds rose by 10.94 per cent to close at 71 kobo. Mobil Oil Nigeria chalked up 6.16 per cent to close at N297.25 while Julius Berger Nigeria added 5.01 per cent to close at N41.95 per share.

Total turnover stood at 1.31 billion shares worth N10.32 billion in 13,042 deals last week as against a total of 1.029 billion shares valued at N7.980 billion that exchanged hands in 13,441 deals in the previous week.

The financial services sector led the activity chart with 1.139 billion shares valued at N6.028 billion traded in 7,518deals; thus contributing 87.01 per cent and 58.39 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The consumer goodssector followed with 71.209 million shares worth N2.306 billion in 2,261 deals while the services sector placed third with a turnover of 29.390 million shares worth N24.594 million in 258 deals.

The trio of Continental Reinsurance Plc, Custodian And Allied Insurance Plc and FBN Holdings Plc, jointly accounted for 565.746 million shares worth N1.450 billion in 914 deals, contributing 43.22per cent and 14.04 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Also traded during the week were a total of 11,585 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N144,678 in five deals compared with a total of 20 units valued at N91 traded in two dealspenultimate week.

In the debt segment, a total of 18,144 units of Federal Government bonds valued at N17.555 million were traded in 12 deals compared with a total of 8,390 units valued at N8.203 million traded in four deals in the previous week.

The downtrend at the Nigerian stock market broadly reflected the low appetites for equities across the major global markets. From Europe to America and Asia, equities traded largely on the negative. African equities, with the exception of Nigeria, however played the contrarian with considerable gains during the week.

In United State of America, the S & P 500 Index and NASDAQ declined by 1.4 per cent each. In United Kingdom, the UK FTSE dropped by 1.1 per cent. Germany’s DAX Index dropped by 0.6 per cent. France’s CAC Index slipped by 0.3 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei Index declined by 1.3 per cent. Brazil’s IBOVESPA Index dropped by 1.1 per cent while India’s BSE Composite Index dropped by 0.8 per cent.

However, Chinese Shanghai Composite Index recorded a return of 1.0 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index improved by 0.2 per cent. Russia’s RTS Index appreciated by 2.7 per cent. Kenya’s NSE 20 Index appreciated by 3.3 per cent. Ghana’s GSE Composite Index rose by 0.6 per cent while Egypt’s EGX Index rallied by 0.4 per cent.

Most analysts remained cautious about the outlook for the Nigerian equities, in spite of several corporate earnings reports showing steady corporate performance.

“As the earnings season winds down we believe market performance will be majorly driven by developments in the macroeconomic space. Yet, following four consecutive days of decline, we expect bargain hunters to show interest in some fundamentally sound stocks in the week ahead,” Afrinvest Securities, a Lagos-based dealer at the NSE, stated.

 

 

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