NSE RoundUp! Profit-taking shaves off N462bn from Nigerian equities

After three consecutive weeks of considerable rally at the Nigerian stock market, investors scrambled to monetise their gains in the immediate past week, overwhelming the underlying bargain-hunting that had been running ahead of the release of corporate earnings and dividends.

With mounting open order sales, quoted equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) ran a four-day consecutive decline till Thursday and only made a modest recovery on Friday. With this, the equities market recorded its first week-on-week decline in 2018 in the immediate past week with a net capital loss of N462 billion.

The benchmark index at the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), indicated average week-on-week decline of 2.93 per cent, trimming the average year-to-date return to 14.46 per cent. The momentum of activities improved considerably during the week, driven by sale orders. Low-priced stocks continued to dominate transactions at the stock market as investors sought to monetise three-digit gains by several low and mid-priced stocks while other investors sought to lock in greater position in the value stocks.

The ASI- a value-based common index that tracks share prices at the Exchange, declined from its week’s opening index of 45,092.83 points to close the week at 43,773.76 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted equities closed the week at N15.692 trillion as against its week’s opening value of N16.154 trillion.

There were 44 decliners against 30 advancers during the week compared with 40 advancers and 32 decliners recorded in the previous week. A total of 98 equities remained unchanged last week, lower than 100 equities recorded in the previous week.

Expectedly, sectoral analysis showed a widespread downtrend. The NSE 30 Index, which tracks the 30 most capitalised companies at the Exchange, declined by 2.94 per cent. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 6.40 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index depreciated by 3.33 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index slipped by 2.03 per cent. Meanwhile, the NSE Consumer Goods Index rose by 2.15 per cent while the NSE Oil and Gas Index inched up by 0.08 per cent.

Low-priced stocks, otherwise known as penny stocks, which had been at the top of the bullish rally in the previous weeks were expectedly atop the profit-taking trend last week. Diamond Bank recorded the highest loss, in percentage terms, of 26.05 per cent to close at N2.64. Champion Breweries followed with a drop of 20.69 per cent to close at N2.53. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria declined by 18.0 per cent to close at N2.05. Sterling Bank dropped by 16.59 per cent to close at N1.91. Honeywell Flour Mill dropped by 15.5 per cent to close at N2.67. NPF Microfinance Bank declined by 13.45 per cent to close at N1.48 while FCMB Group lost 12.3 per cent to close at N3.06 per share.

Read also: NSE LIVE! Equities lose N156bn as selloff continues

On the positive side, Wapic Insurance led the advancers with a gain of 10.9 per cent to close at 61 kobo. Dangote Sugar Refinery trailed with a gain of 9.8 per cent to close at N21.96. Nascon Allied Industries appreciated by 9.63 per cent to close at N20.83. Trans-Nationwide Express rose by 8.0 per cent to close at 81 kobo. P Z Cussons Nigeria posted a gain of 6.8 per to close at N23.50 while Nigerian Breweries rose by 6.7 per cent to close at N151.75 per share.

Total turnover rose to 7.16 billion shares worth N42.55 billion in 39,037 deals last week compared with 5.01 billion shares valued at N45.82 billion traded in 44,569 deals in the previous week. The conglomerates sector led the activity chart with 4.11 billion shares valued at N10.02 billion in 2,454 deals; contributing 57.4 per cent and 23.5 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The financial services sector followed with 2.76 billion shares worth N25.40 billion in 25,853 deals while the consumer goods sector ranked third with 156.22 million shares worth N5.30 billion in 5,875 deals.

The three most active stocks were Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, FCMB Group and Skye Bank, which altogether accounted for 4.79 billion shares worth N11.34 billion in 5,216 deals, contributing 66.9 per cent and 26.7 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Also traded during the week were a total of 153,755 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N1.88 million in 11 deals, compared with a total of 1.947 million units valued at N105.57 million traded in 15 deals in the previous week.

At the sovereign bond market, a total of 6,715 units of Federal Government bonds valued at N5.32 million were traded in 15 deals compared with a total of 4,437 units valued at N4.26 million traded in nine deals two weeks ago.

Market analysts said the market will trade between bargain-hunting and profit-taking in the new week as directors of quoted companies meet to approve audited report and accounts for the 2017 business year and recommend dividend payment.

“We anticipate further sell-offs as investors continue to book profits in stocks that had rallied,” Afrinvest Securities-a Lagos-based dealer at the Exchange.

 

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