Investors’ profit-taking in Tier-1 banks, others, down equities market by 0.42%
By Kayode Tokede
Sentiments trading on The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) turned negative as investors’ profit-taking activities dominated equities market performance throughout last week.
Aside the mid-week session, the equities market posted marginal losses on the other trading days.
This dragged the NSE All-Share Index to a decline of 0.42per cent week-on-week (w/w) performance to 41,001.99 basis points from 41,176.14 basis points the equities market opened for trading.
Consequently, the equities market Year-Till-Date (YTD) performance moderated to 1.8per cent.
Notably, Investors profit-taking in United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), dropping six per cent, Access bank that dropped by 5.7per cent, Flour Mill of Nigeria Plc that depreciated by 2.4 per cent, Dangote Cement that decline by 1.3 per cent and BUA Cement that recorded 1.1 per cent decline drove the weekly loss.
The performances across the sectors were broadly negative – the Banking (-17.5 per cent) index led the losers’ chart followed by Insurance (-0.8 per cent), Industrial Goods (-0.5per cent) Consumer Goods (-0.1 per cent), and Oil and Gas (-0.1per cent) indices.
The weekly report of the NSE said, “A total turnover of 4.288 billion shares worth N25.989 billion in 32,849 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 3.447 billion shares valued at N32.725 billion that exchanged hands last week in 30,327 deals.
“The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 2.607 billion shares valued at N12.454 billion traded in 15,128 deals; thus contributing 60.81per cent and 47.92per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
“The Conglomerates Industry followed with 813.813 million shares worth N1.561 billion in 2,417 deals. The third place was Oil and Gas Industry, with a turnover of 212.126 million shares worth N821.978 million in 2,726 deals.
“Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, Living Trust Mortgage Bank Plc and Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 1.582 billion shares worth N1.564 billion in 2,726 deals, contributing 36.9per cent and 6.02% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.”
The weekly report by NSE added that a total volume of 4,890,000, 5 Years 5.5% Series 4 (Tranche A) Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Bond Due 2025 under the N70,000,000,000 Bond issuance program; and the 25,000,000, 7 Years 6.25% Series 4 (Tranche B) Fixed Rate Senior Unsecured Bond Due 2027 Under the N70,000,000,000 bond issuance program of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc were listed by memorandum on last Thursday.
Analysts at Cordros capital stated that, “In the week ahead, we expect investors’ attention to be centered on the outcome of the first MPC meeting of the year.
“We believe consensus expectation for a HOLD decision if confirmed will engender positive market performance as investors cherry-pick stocks with attractive dividend yields amid negative real returns in the fixed income market.
“However, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the fragility of the macroeconomic environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
