Stock Market: Investors lose N153bn in a day

The stock market closed with a bearish performance for the 9th consecutive trading session on Wednesday amid massive sell-offs in profit taking in stocks.

Sell pressures in market bellweathers like Nigerian Breweries (-4.4%), Nestle (-3.8%), Dangote Cement (-1.0%) dragged the All Share Index, benchmark of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, down by 1.08% for the second trading day of the week to 38,606.41points.

The Year-to-Date (YTD) stood at 0.9% as against 2.1% recorded on Monday.

Equities investors lost N153 billion as market capitalization of traded equities dipped to N13.98 trillion from N14.14 trillion recorded in the previous trading session.

However, activity level remained strengthened as volume and value of traded rose by 53.9% and 188.5% to 342 million units and N4.74 billion respectively.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth improved as 23 stocks advanced against 25 stocks that declined.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expressed optimism that the market indicators would improve following the improvement in investor sentiment.

“Today, we saw some bargain hunting in some small cap stocks despite the sell pressures in bellwethers. Thus, we anticipate a positive performance in subsequent session thisweek following the improvement in investor sentiment,” they said.

Read Also: Bureaux de Change operators reject new CBN’s forex policy

On the losers’ chart, IKEJAHOTEL dropped by 7.04% to close at N2.51 per share. AGLEVENT trailed by 6.78% to close at 55k per share, while GLAXOSMITH fell by 4.95% to close N19.20 per share.

WAPCO depreciated by 4.94% to close at N36.60 per share, while INTBREW was down by 4.92% to close at N49.25 per share.

Conversly, HMARKINS led the gainers with 6.25% to close at 34k per share. FCMB rose by 5% to close at N2.10 per share, while FLOURMILL improved by 4.98% to close at N31.60 per share.

FIDSON appreciated by 4.87% to close at N6.24 per share, while DANGFLOUR jumped up by 4.68% to close at N8.95 per share.

The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (68.3m), TRANSCORP (42.1m) and ZENITH (35.7m), while the top traded stocks by value were GUARANTY (N1.0bn), ZENITH (N929.6m) and NESTLE (N750.8m).

Performance across sectors was equally bearish as 4 of 5 indices recorded negative performance. The Industrial Goods index led laggards down 2.7% as sell-offs in DANGCEM (-1.0%) and WAPCO (-4.94%) dragged the index lower.

The Consumer Goods index followed closely due to losses recorded in NESTLE (-3.75%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.35%) that pulled the index 2.6% lower while the Oil & Gas index lost 0.5% resulting from profit taking in OANDO (-0.72%) and JAPAULOIL (-4.55%).

Also, the Banking index continued its downtrend, falling 0.3%, on the back of price depreciation in ZENITH (-1.92%) and ETI (-2.20%). On the flipside, the Insurance index gained 1.0%, resulting from gainsin MANSARD (+4.17%) and WAPIC (+4.17%).

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now