Nigerian Exchange Goes South as Investors Book Profit
The Nigerian Exchange, NGX, goes south again on Wednesday as investors’ book profits. Selling rallies occurred on bellwether stocks after a short-lived bargain hunting following a persistent yield slowdown in the fixed income space.
Market data shows that price depreciation in DANGSUGAR, ZENITH BANK, OANDO, FBNH, GTCO, STERLNBANK, TRANSCORP, ETI, ETRANZACT, MBENEFIT, PHARMDECKO, UNITYBNK, ACADEMY, and CHAMS dragged the market index lower.
The Nigerian Exchange All-share index (NGX-ASI) edged lower by 0.03 per cent while market capitalisation sloped downward 0.2 per cent. Amidst renewed selloffs, the Nigerian bourse recorded 17 gainers and 19 losers with market breadth remaining negative.
Market activities closed with the volume of stocks traded on the exchange appreciating marginally by 0.87 per cent and the value of stocks traded on the exchange depreciating by 27.33 per cent.
A total of 198.33 million units of shares valued at ₦1.05 billion were traded in 3,336 deals.
SOVRENINS led the volume chart, accounting for 24.40 per cent of the total volume of trades, followed by MBENEFIT (13.66%), JAIZBANK (5.50%), REGALINS (4.54%), and TRANSCORP (3.50%) to complete the top five on the volume chart.
Atlass Portfolios Limited analysts said MTNN topped the value chart accounting for 14.70 per cent of the total value of trade on the exchange.
CAPHOTEL and ETERNA topped the advancers’ list, as their share prices edged upward by 10.00 per cent, while ACADEMY led the losers’ table with its share price declining by 9.76 per cent to close at ₦0.37 after opening the day at ₦0.41.
Afrinvest said performance across sectors under its coverage was bearish as 4 indices lost while the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices closed flat.
The Insurance and Banking indices slipped by 0.5% and 0.1% respectively due to price depreciation in MBENEFIT (-8.6%), SOVRENINS (-4.4%), GTCO (-0.7%), and ZENITH (-0.4%).
Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices fell by 0.1% apiece due to sell-offs in DANGSUGAR (-2.8%) and OANDO (-1.9%).
“In the next trading session, we expect to see profit-taking activities dominate the market in the absence of any positive catalyst”, analysts said.
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Nigerian Exchange Goes South as Investors Book Profit
