Nigerian Exchange Tumbles as Stock Pickers Mood Swings Negative

Nigerian Exchange Tumbles as Stock Pickers Mood Swings Negative

Nigerian Exchange (NGX) tumbles on Thursday as stock pickers mood in the local bourse swings negative from yesterday’s bargain hunting seen on Wednesday amidst government plan to hold investors call for its Eurobond on Friday.

Equities investors appear to trade cautiously amidst the ongoing monetary policy committee of the central bank, the outcome of which will set the tone for the fixed income market.

Market data shows that investors’ wealth declined by about ₦30 billion, as the year to date losses worsened to negative 3.4 per cent. The decline was driven by the price depreciation in all of the major market sectors, save for the Insurance sectors that grew by 0.47 per cent, Atlass Portfolios limited said in a market report.

Due to the selling rallies, the All-Share Index dipped 57.03 basis points, representing a 0.15 per cent decrease to close at 38,911.31. Meanwhile, equities market capitalization slides exactly ₦29.71billion to close at ₦20.27 trillion.

 Similarly, the market activities traded bearishly as both the total volume and value traded nosedived by 7.93 per cent and 52.00 per cent, respectively.

A total of 130.20 million units of shares valued at ₦1.43 billion were traded in 2,962 deals. ACCESS outdid the traded stocks in terms of volume, accounting for 19.03 per cent of the total volume of trades, followed by UNIVINSURE (11.72%), ZENITH BANK (6.52%), GTCO (5.19%), and JAPAULGOLD (4.60%) to complete the top five on the volume chart.

Based on the trading data, Pan-African lender ACCESS emerged as the most traded stock in value terms, with 16.13 per cent of the total value of trades on the exchange.

UNITY BANK led the advancers table with price appreciation of 9.62 per cent, trailed closely by CHAMS (5.00%), UCAP (1.83%), STERLNBANK (1.35%), AFRIPRUD (0.82%) and four others.

Conversely, ETERNA topped the decliners chart as its share price declined by 9.44 per cent to close at ₦6.52, as HONYFLOUR (-3.93%), WAPCO (-2.22%), OANDO (-1.52%), FBNH (-1.32%), DANGSUGAR (-0.58%) and GTCO (-0.55%) amongst others also decline in price.

Nigerian Exchange data shows that the market breadth closed negatively, recording 9 gainers and 17 losers. In its market report, Afrinvest said the performance was bearish across sectors under its coverage as 4 indices lost, 1 gained, while the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

The Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices led the laggards, down 0.6% and 0.4% respectively due to price depreciation in ETERNA (-9.4%), OANDO (-1.5%), DANGSUGAR (-0.6%) and HONYFLOUR (-3.9%).

Similarly, the Banking and Industrial Goods indices dipped 0.3% and 0.1% respectively on the back of sell-offs in FBNH (-1.3%), UBN (-3.0%), and WAPCO (-2.2%).

Meanwhile, the Insurance index was the lone gainer, up 0.5% due to bargain hunting in SOVRENIN (+4.2%). In the final trading session, analysts said they expect profit-taking sentiment to be extended in the absence of any positive catalyst.

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Nigerian Exchange Tumbles as Stock Pickers Mood Swings Negative