Equities Investors Lose N90bn to Portfolio Reshuffles
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) shed more than N90 billion over a week due to investors’ move to reshuffle portfolios, keeping bears’ grip tight for the third week. The sustained selloffs in the local exchange have dragged key performance indicators downward.
Year-to-date return has moderated below 30%, though still ahead of an annual inflation rate of 25.8%. Also, the market index has backpedalled from climbing further as investors’ sentiments weakened.
According to the NGX website, the All-Share Index declined by 1.40% week on week to 66,382.14 points just as selloffs; profit-taking activities in some of the bellwether companies continued.
Trading activity throughout the week remained characterized by waning sentiment as evidenced by a 27.67% week-on-week decline in the number of deals to 27,874.
On Friday, major losers were: BUACEMENT (-10.00%), MTNN (-0.19%), and OANDO (-9.77%) offsetting buying interests in BUAFOODS (+3.10%), DANGCEM (+1.80%) and DANGSUGAR (+4.28%).
Analysis of trade metrics revealed an uptick in volume (+6.99%) and value traded (+32.81%) to 292.9 million units and N4.5 billion apiece.
FIDELITYBK led the volume chart, trading 48.6 million units (16.59% of total volumes), while MTNN led the value chart in deals worth N772.3 million (17.04% of total value).
On a weekly basis, SUNUASSURE (19%), DAARCOMS (19%) and ETERNA (15) were the major toast of investors amid the cherry-picking. The laggards for the week were OANDO (-19), TANTALIZER (-14), and CHAMS (10).
Market activity remained active, with total deals decreasing by 7.37% to 6,323 trades. However, the total trading volume increased by 6.99% to 292.94 million units, and the traded value surged by 32.81% to N4.53 billion.
At the close of the session, FIDELITYBK led the trading volumes with 48.59 million units valued at N393.89 million, involving 244 trades. Despite this negative performance, there were more advancers (30) than laggards (23), and the year-to-date return for the index remained at a healthy 29.52%.
The sectoral performance was in the mix-bargain as the see-saw movement continued across tickers. The Insurance and consumer goods sectors were the best performing indices as they garnered gains by 2.77% and 1.59% week on week.
On the flip side, the Banking (-4.17%), Industrial goods (-3.04%) and Oil & Gas sectors (-1.24%) accordingly posted weekly losses as investors dumped securities across these indices.
Overall, the total market capitalization of listed equities fell by 1.40% week-on-week to N36.33 trillion while year-to-date return moderated to 29.52%. Stockbrokers anticipate the bearish sentiment to continue as the market seeks catalysts and policy pronouncements to trigger the bullish sentiment. CBN Devalues Naira 12.95% despite Rising Foreign Reserves
