NGX Slowdown as Investors Lost N127bn
The Nigerian stock market lost about N127 billion in the last five trading sessions due to lower buying interest in companies’ shares. Following the monetary policy rate hike in the month, the local bourse has been slowing down as investors – retail and institutional – began to rebalance their respective portfolios.
Buying interest remains downbeat, though a positive catalyst is expected to drive an uptrend – from an expectation that companies’ earnings release would strengthen bargain hunting. Data from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) shows that the benchmark index fell 0.5% week on week to 51,979.92 points.
Accordingly, year-to-date return weakened to 21.7% from 22.2% while market capitalisation dipped by ₦126.8 billion to ₦28.0 trillion. In the week, trading activity improved as average volume and value traded rose 9.1% and 18.2% respectively to 183.4 million units and ₦3.0 billion.
Afrinvest said the top traded stocks by volume were UBA (128.1m units), GTCO (65.4m units), and LIVING TRUST (40.9m units) while MTNN (₦2.0bn), NB (₦1.8bn), and SEPLAT (₦1.7bn) led trade by value.
Across the firm’s coverage sectors, performance was bearish as 4 indices lost while 2 gained. The Oil & Gas and Insurance indices advanced 3.8% and 1.8% week on week respectively due to buying interest in SEPLAT, CORNERST, and LINKASSURE.
Seplat energy shares inched higher by 10%, Cornerstone Insurance did 26.3% while Linkage Assurance gained 9.4%, according to stockbrokers. Market notes from investment banking firms showed that the Banking and Consumer Goods indices led the laggards, down 4.1% and 2.0% this week respectively.
This was due to selloffs in UNITYBNK, ZENITH, HONYFLOUR, and NB Plc. Sell pressures dragged Unity Bank’s share price downward by 6.7%, Zenith lost 6.5% and double-digit downward pricing was spotted in Honeywell Flour (-14.5%) and Nigerian Breweries (10.9%)
Likewise, stockbrokers at Afrinvest said price depreciation in WAPCO (-6.8%) and MTNN (- 0.6%) drove the Industrial Goods and AFR-ICT indices down 0.5% and 0.2% week on week respectively.
Gauging the investor sentiment, market breadth ended on a flattish note at -0.1x from the prior week as 18 stocks gained, 33 lost while 101 were unchanged. READ: Stocks Dip as Local Bourse Sees Worst Bearish Sessions in Months
CORNERST (+26.3%), SEPLAT (10.0%), and LINKASSURE (+9.4%) emerged as the top performing stocks of the week while NAHCO (-20.5%), CAVERTON (- 16.8%), and HONYFLOUR (-14.9%) were the top underperforming stocks, Afrinvest said in its market report. # NGX Slowdown as Investors Lost N127bn
