NGX Falls as Investors Dump Financial, Industrial Stocks
The equities segment of the Nigerian Exchange, NGX, sheds weight on Monday as investors continue profit-taking activities in the local bourse – after about N479 billion loss sustained last week. Investors weak buying sentiment knocked off N16 billion from the equities market amidst election uncertainties.
Stockbrokers told MarketForces Africa that bank crisis in the United States sent negative signals to global markets and investors appear to be in a cautious mood. Then, local investors have started to rebalance their portfolios as the earnings season temperature begins to cool down.
Market data shows that today’s decline was driven by profit-taking activities in STANBIC (-8.5%) and NB (-3.1%). As a result, the Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index declined by 0.1% to 54,886.04 points.
Then, NGX’s year-to-date moderated to +7.1% while other market indices slip into the red zone. Key decliners include mid- and large-cap stocks such as WAPIC (declined 9.52), STANBIC(lost 8.52%), NB (fell 3.14%), CAP (down 1.04%), and DANGSUGAR (down 0.54%).
Despite weak buying interest, trading activity was upbeat, with total deals, volume, and value increases.
The total volume traded increased significantly by 646.5% to 1.17 billion units, valued at N2.88 billion, and exchanged in 3,066 deals. NEIMETH was the most traded stock by volume and value at 1.07 billion units and NGN1.58 billion, respectively.
Analysis of key sector performance showed that the Banking index gained 1.3%, and Industrial Goods popped higher by 0.1% despite a bearish grip on mid, large capitalised companies’ shares.
On the negative side, the Insurance index lost 0.5% and Consumer Goods went southward by 0.4%. On the other hand, the Oil & Gas index closed flat. As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was positive (1.4x), as 19 tickers gained relative to 14 losers.
ACCESSCORP (+7.1%) and CUTIX (+6.0%) topped the gainers’ list, while IKEJAHOTEL (-9.5%) and WAPIC (-9.5%) recorded the highest losses of the day. Data from the Nigerian Exchange shows that equities market capitalisation declined by ₦16.0 billion to ₦29.9 trillion. # NGX Falls as Investors Dump Financial, Industrial Stocks
