Stock Market Loses N56bn As 27 Equities Decline
Equity investors in the Nigerian Exchange Limited lost N55.78bn at the end of trading on Tuesday as 27 firms recorded losses.
The NGX All-Share Index declined by 0.27 per cent to 39,219.61 basis points from 39,326.67bps on Monday while the market capitalisation fell to N20.43tn from N20.49tn.
Investor activity rose as trading volume increased by 41.41 per cent to 425.66 million shares valued at N1.97bn in 4,553 deals on Tuesday from 301.01 million shares worth N1.54bn in 4,715 deals the previous trading day.
All sectoral indices dropped at the end of trading on the floor of the NGX except the NGX Industrial Index, which stood flat at 1,948.53bps.
NGX Banking, Oil & Gas, Consumer Goods, and Insurance indices dropped by 0.39 per cent, 0.41 per cent, 1.94 per cent, and 0.33 per cent respectively. The Premium Board and Main Board indices declined by 0.03 and 0.51 per cent, respectively.
On top of the losers’ chart was Nigerian Breweries Plc with a 9.93 per cent decline to N49.45 per share. Livestock Feeds Plc followed closely with a 9.83 per cent drop to N2.11 per share.
Lasaco Assurance Plc, UPDC Plc and Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc closed 9.74 per cent, 7.46 per cent and 7.04 per cent lower respectively at the end of trading.
The 11 gainers were led by Transcorp Hotels Plc, which closed 10.00 per cent higher at N5.17 per share. Honeywell Flour Mills came next with a 9.74 per cent increase to close at N4.28 per share.
Other top gainers were Morison Industries Plc (9.73 per cent), FTN Cocoa Processors Plc (9.62 per cent), and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (9.46 per cent).
“Investors on the Nigeria equities market sustained the previous day’s bearish sentiment, as 27 stocks declined,” said analysts at Atlas Portfolios Limited.
They said the bearish sentiment was driven by price waning in some large and medium capitalised stocks.
“Following the decline of many fundamentally viable stocks and expectation of the interim financial reports of the remaining tier-1 banks, we anticipate the market should upturn the two-day negative sentiment,” the analysts added.
Analysts at Cordros Capital said negative trading persisted in the domestic equities market, as profit-taking on Zenith Bank (-1.0 per cent) weighed down the bourse.
