Equities Investors Lose N675bn as NGX Slumps
The equities segment of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) started a fresh pullback as interest in heavily priced stocks began to decline. The bears were on the rampage, dragging the stock market from making further trajectory.
Last week, investors in the local bourse offloaded their interest in some heavyweights, which dragged the equities capitalisation lower again. NGX declined by about N675 billion in four trading sessions.
Profit takings have been sustained for the fourth consecutive week following massive sell-offs of AIRTELAFRI causing the benchmark index to plummet by 2.3% week on week to close at 52,994.13 points.
Stockbrokers said equities investors have started to rebalance their portfolios amidst rising spot pricing on government instruments in the fixed income segment.
Reacting to the trend, analysts at Cowry Asset Management believe that equities investors have begun to reposition ahead of the first quarter earnings season based on the current price levels that have been perceived to be an attractive point of entry.
Data from the exchange showed that the market capitalization lost N674.53 billion to close at N28.87 trillion – causing the year-to-date return to moderate to 3.40% from 7.04% last week.
Across the sectors week, stockbrokers said the performance was largely on a bear trend across the indices except for the Insurance sector which gained 2.09% week on week from buy interest.
Trading data showed that activity levels mirrored the decline in the market’s broad gauge, as volumes and value transacted declined by 49.1% week on week and 42.8% week on week respectively.
The Banking index dropped by 1.0% due to sell-offs. Also, consumer Goods slow down bt 0.6%, and the same pattern was seen in the Oil & Gas sector, down by 0.1%.
On the contrary, the Insurance index popped higher, up by 2.2%, making the segment the sole gainer of the week. A balanced position kept the industrial Goods index to remain flattish.
At the close of the week, the level of market trading activities was downbeat as the total number of deals plunged by 9.83% week on week to 16,155.
Cowry Asset said stockbrokers recorded a 49.14% decline in traded volumes for the week to 1.05 billion units valued at N10.05 billion, indicating a decrease of 42.77%.
On the gainers’ chart were NAHCO (+21%), MANSARD (+16%), and LINKASSURE (+12%), while the week’s losers were ETERNA (-19%), MULTIVERSE (-19%), and AIRTELAFRI (-10%). #Equities Investors Lose N675bn as NGX Slumps
