NSE LIVE! Equities open negative with N42bn loss

Nigerian stock market traded mostly on the negative on Monday as quoted equities reopened to a tinge of profit-taking.

There were nearly three losers for every gainer in the five-hour trading session that left equities with a net capital loss of N42 billion.

With a two-week rally that included net capital gain of N80 billion last week, equities on Monday saw considerable profit-taking transactions as investors sought to lock in values. The sell pressure overwhelmed the market situation, forcing most transactions to close at discount.

Aggregate market value of all quoted equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at N8.867 trillion as against its opening value of N8.909 trillion. The benchmark index for the market-the All Share Index (ASI), also declined by 0.47 per cent from 25,746.52 points to close at 25,626.37 points. Average year-to-date return stood at -4.64 per cent.

Most sectoral indices also declined under the weight of the widespread losses. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dropped by 1.4 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index declined by 1.1 per cent. The NSE Banking Index slipped by 0.47 per cent while the NSE Industrial Goods Index closed flat. The NSE Oil & Gas Index played the contrarian with a gain of 0.04 per cent.

There were 22 losers against eight gainers. Nigerian Breweries, NSE’s second most capitalised company, dropped by N2.55 to close at N122.45. Oando and Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with a loss of 28 kobo each to close at N5.62 and N6.12 respectively. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated lost 24 kobo to close at N8.21 while UAC of Nigeria and Guaranty Trust Bank dropped by 20 kobo each to close at N14.80 and N24.80 respectively.

On the positive side, Total Nigeria recorded the highest gain of N10.65 to close at N270. Fidelity Bank placed second with a gain of 8.0 kobo to close at 92 kobo. United Capital rose by 7.0 kobo to close at N2.95. Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (Nahco) added 4.0 kobo to close at N2.49 while Custodian and Allied chalked up 3.0 kobo to close at N3.25.

Total turnover stood at 191.83 million shares valued at N584.72 million in 2,626 deals. The three most active stocks were with Staco Insurance, 100 million shares; Dangote Sugar Refinery, 13.99million shares and FCMB Holdings (8.76mn).

“The decline in performance today was in line with projection as investors expectedly took a breather following two weeks of positive momentum. Whilst we believe upsides to equities are capped by subsisting capital controls which restrict foreign investor participation, our outlook for the market remains positive for April as we expect strong first quarter earnings, due for release this month, to further propel market performance.,” Afrinvest Securities stated in post-trading note.

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