NGX Halts Rally after Price Decline in Banking Stocks
Nigerian Exchange, NGX, on Thursday halts the four days rally after price decline in banking stock as investors’ position for first of 2021 half earnings earning season. Profit-taking activities resulted in a negative print on the domestic bourse as bears get a grip of the market, with key indices sloped southward.
Price decline seen in medium and large capitalised stocks such as ACCESS, GTCO FIDELITYBK, DANGSUGAR, STANBIC, UCAP and others drive negative outturn, Atlass Portfolios analysts said in a note to its clients.
Consequently, equities market breadth turned negative, with 12 gainers versus 17 laggards.
Stockbrokers noted that market activities ended with the volume of stocks traded declining by 19.54 per cent, while the value of trades on the exchange today appreciated marginally by 0.79 per cent. A total of 238.24 million units of shares valued at N2.58 billion, were traded in 3,927 deals.
TRANSCORP led the volume chart, accounting for 14.46 per cent of the total volume of trades, followed closely by COURTVILLE (11.07%) ZENITH BANK (9.94%) FIDELITYBK (8.59%), and CHAMS (6.35%) to complete the top five on the volume chart.
Meanwhile, ZENITH BANK led the value chart accounting for 22.92 per cent of the total value of trade recorded Thursday.
Market data shows that NEM, COURTVILLE and NAHCO led the gainers’ chart, with their share prices advancing by 10.00 per cent, 9.52 per cent, and 5.71 per cent, respectively.
But PRESTIGE topped the losers’ table with its share price depreciating by 10.00 per cent to close at N0.45 after opening the day at N0.50.
Sector Performance:
Afrinvest said in a market report that performance was mixed across the sectors under its coverage, as 3 indices gained, 2 indices lost, while the AFR-ICT index remained flat.
The Oil & Gas index led the gainers, up 1.2% on the back of buying interest in SEPLAT (+2.7%). In the same vein, Insurance and Industrial Goods indices rose 14 and 4 basis points respectively, driven by price appreciation in NEM (+10.0%) and WAPCO (+0.7%).
Conversely, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices declined by 1.0% and 14bps respectively due to sell-pressure on ACCESS (-3.2%), UBA (-2.6%), NASCON (-4.1%), and DANGSUGAR (-0.8%).
“In the final trading session for the week, we expect profit-taking sentiment to be extended barring any fresh positive catalyst”, Afrinvest said in a note to clients.
NGX Halts Rally after Price Decline in Banking Stocks
