Investors’ profit-taking down equities market by 0.01%
By Kayode Tokede
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) equities market on Thursday closed activities on a negative note, to reverse previous days’ gain on investors’ sell-off sentiment in the Consumer goods sector.
In summary, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 5.65 basis points, representing a marginal dip of 0.01 per cent, to close at 37,866.90 basis points, with Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses flat at -0.1 percent and -six.0per cent respectively.
Similarly, the overall market capitalisation value shed N3 billion to close at N19.729 trillion.
On sectors, the Oil & Gas (+0.8 percent), Banking (+0.7 percent) and Insurance (+0.3 per cent) indices recorded gains while the Consumer Goods (-0.7percent) index declined. The Industrial goods index closed flat.
The market loss was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Nigerian Breweries, Vitafoam Nigeria, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Company (GTCO) and Ikeja Hotel.
Following the market trend, analysts at Afrinvest Limited expected the domestic equities market to close in the red for the week.
However, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth closed positive, as 18 stocks advanced while 16 declined. Sovereign Trust Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 percent to close at 33 kobo, per share. FTN Cocoa Processors followed with a gain 9.76 percent to close at 45 kobo, while CWG Plc went up by 9.65 percent to close at N1.25, per share.
AIICO Insurance rose by 9.52 percent to close at N1.15, while Red Star Express gained 8.04 per cent to close at N3.36, per share.
On the other hand, Ikeja Hotel led the losers’ chart by 9.29 per cent to close at N1.27, per share. UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) followed with a decline of 9.09 percent to close at N1.30, while Wapic Insurance lost 8.47 per cent to close at 54 kobo, per share.
University Press lost 7.24 per cent to close at N1.41, while Unity Bank shed 6.35 percent to close at 59 kobo, per share.
The total volume of trades fell by 18.9 per cent to 159.997 million units, valued at N927.859 million, and exchanged in 3,038 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Sovereign Trust Insurance topped the activity chart with 14.947 million shares valued at N4.754 million.
Fidelity Bank followed with 13.481 million shares worth N32.159 million, while Wapic Insurance traded 11.956 million shares valued at N6.497 million.
UPDC traded 11.245 million shares valued at N15.263 million, while Courteville Business Solutions transacted 9.810 million shares worth N2.168 million.
According to analysts at Investment One research, “The equities market closed flat today. Going forward, we expect investor’s sentiments to be swayed by the search for real positive returns and developments in the interest rate space.
“We reiterate that this may be a great period to pick up some quality names with a medium to long-term investment horizon.”
