Nigerian Exchange in Bloodbath as ‘Big Names’ Drive Losses
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) in a bloodbath as big names or the blue chip stocks in the banking, insurance, consumer sectors continue to drive losses for the 9 trading sessions since last week.
Last week, the stock market recorded a bearish outing throughout the five trading sessions and this has persisted this week with the probability that the Friday session will close in red.
Bears continue to consolidate grip on the Nigerian Equities Market as the NGX All-share index (ASI) dips a further 0.49% in the session to peg the bourse at 38,044.58bps. This negative outing brought the year-to-date performance of the All-Share Index to stand at -5.53%.
Meanwhile, today’s loss occurred following price decline in DANGCEM (-2.9%), GUARANTY (-1.2%), and UACN (-2.2%). Recalled, Dangote Cement shareholders ratified N16 dividend per share at its annual general meeting on Wednesday.
Consequently, year-to-date loss worsened to -5.5% while market capitalisation declined by a whopping sum of ₦98.6 billion to settle at ₦19.829 trillion.
Trading activity was mixed as volume traded rose by 5.5% to 214.2 million units while value traded fell by 26.4% to ₦1.3 billion.
The most traded stocks by volume were SOVERENINS (27.2 million units), MBENEFIT (17.2 million units), and UACN (15.7 million units) while GUARANTY (₦226.3 million), UACN (₦174.3 million), and ZENITH (₦134.2 million) led by value.
Bearish Sector Performance
Afrinvest said performance across sectors under its coverage was bearish as 4 indices lost, 1 gained and 1 closed flat. The Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices lost 1.1% apiece, following price decline in MRS (-5.0%) and DANGCEM (-2.9%).
The Banking and Insurance indices lost 0.4% and 0.3% respectively, due to sell-offs in GUARANTY (-1.2%), ETI (-0.1%), and WAPIC (-5.7%).
Conversely, the Consumer Goods index gained 0.1% driven by price uptick in CHIPLC (+6.4%) and FLOURMILL (+0.2%). However, the AFRI-ICT index closed flat.
Investor Sentiment Weakens
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 0.8x from 1.4x in the last trading session as 16 stocks advanced while 21 declined. MBENEFIT (+7.3%), REGALINS (+7.1%) and CUTIX (+7.1%) led gainers while SOVERENINS (-10.0), ABCTRANS (-8.1%) and ACADEMY (-7.7%) led decliners.
“We expect the market to close the week in the negative region”, Afrinvest said.
Nigerian Exchange in Bloodbath as ‘Big Names’ Drive Losses
