Nigerian Exchange Wavers as Investors Book Profit
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) pulls back on Wednesday as equities investors book profit on MTN Nigeria, Geregu and other lightweight companies’ shares. Today’s selloff is the second bearish session in the week amidst an interest rate hike.
Investors are balancing their position amidst earnings releases and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s hawkish tone with a 600 basis points hike in benchmark interest rate in 8 months.
Stockbrokers said a negative outing in the local bourse resulted in a decline in key performance indicators: year-to-date return moderated while the all-share index and market capitalisation pullback.
Nigerian Exchange All-share index declined marginally by -0.02% today, according to stockbrokers’ market brief and year-to-date return moderated to 2.63% as the equities market lost N7 billion.
The market index or the All-Share Index decreased by 12.90 basis points today, representing a marginal decline of -0.02% to close at 52,599.65, according to Atlass Portfolios Limited.
Furthermore, market activities were down, as the Total Volume and Total Value traded for the day dropped by -36.16% and -44.60% respectively. Atlass Portfolios said approximately 116.45 million units valued at ₦2,671.35 million were transacted in 3,490 deals.
MBENEFIT was the most traded stock in terms of volume, accounting for 9.51% of the total volume of trades, followed by TRANSCORP (7.39%), GEREGU (7.21%), FBNH (6.50%), and GTCO (5.67%) to complete the top 5 on the volume chart.
Meanwhile, GEREGU was the most traded stock in value terms, with 42.56% of the total value of trades on the exchange. RTBRISCOE and TRIPPLEG jointly topped the advancers’ chart with a price appreciation of 10 percent.
The duo were trailed by OKOMUOIL (9.76%), CAVERTON (8.42%), JAPAULGOLD (7.14%), UNILEVER (13.05%), and thirteen (13) others. In the market, sixteen stocks depreciated, and THOMASWY was the top loser, with a price depreciation of – 9.66% to close at ₦1.31.
According to trading data, CORNERST declined by 6.90%, GEREGU lost 5.90% of its market valuation to selloffs; HONYFLOUR dropped 5.15% while CWG went down by 4.26%, though market breadth closed positive, recording 19 gainers and 16 losers.
Two out of the five major market sectors or indices declined. The NGX Insurance index LOST 0.69% and the NGX Banking index fell by 0.34%. On the other hand, the NGX consumer goods index advanced by +0.34%, while the Industrial and Oil & Gas sectors closed unchanged.
Overall, the equities market capitalisation lost ₦7.03 billion to close at ₦28,649.61 trillion from ₦28,656.64 trillion yesterday. Nigerian Exchange Wavers as Investors Book Profit
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