Investors’ profit-taking down equities market by N340bn
By Kayode Tokede
Investors on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) equities market on Tuesday lost N340 billion following sell-offs in Airtel Africa Plc and 25 others.
As a result, the All-Share Index fell by 648.99 basis points, representing a drop of 1.66 per cent to close at 38,507.29 basis points, while the overall market capitalisation value lost N340 billion to close at N20.069 trillion.
This outing of Tuesday brought the equities market year-to-date performance to stand at -4.38per cent
Analysing by sectors, the Insurance (+0.4per cent), Banking (+0.2per cent) and Oil & Gas (+0.1per cent) indices closed higher while the Consumer Goods (-0.2per cent) 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; Airtel Africa, Okomu Oil Palm, Presco, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Guaranty Trust Bank(GTBank).
This week, analysts at United Capital Plc expected the equities market to record some negative performance as investors book some of their profits off the market.
Afrinvest Limited said that “In the next trading session, we expect the market to sustain its bearish performance as investors take profit.
The market sentiment, as measured by market breadth, was negative as 26 stocks lost, relative to 19 gainers. CWG Plc recorded the highest price gain of 9.73 per cent to close at N1.24, per share. Berger Paints Nigeria followed with a gain 6.72 per cent to close at N7.15, while Red Star Express up by 4.19 per cent to close at N3.23, per share.
NEM Insurance rose by 3.89 per cent to close at N1.87, while Wapic Insurance gained 3.64 per cent to close at 57 kobo, per share. On the other hand, Airtel Africa led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N753.30, per share. Okomu Oil Palm followed with a decline of 9.44 per cent to close at N105.50, while Cornerstone Insurance shed 9.09 per cent to close at 50 kobo, per share.
Learn Africa lost 8 per cent to close at 92 kobo, while Livestock Feeds shed 4.74 per cent to close at N1.81, per share.
Meanwhile, the total volume of trades rose by 2.9 per cent to 297.346 million units, valued at N3.650 billion, and exchanged in 4,402 deals.
Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 43.139 million shares valued at N359.541 million.
Sterling Bank followed with 33.208 million shares worth N52.131 million, while Zenith Bank traded 25.903 million shares valued at N602.184 million.
UAC of Nigeria (UACN) traded 22.925 million shares valued at N216.792 million, while Union Homes Real Estate Investment Trust transacted 19.013 million shares worth N695.876 million.
