Nigerian equities lost N110 billion yesterday at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as continuing selloff depressed the average year-to-date return for Nigerian equities to -3.35 per cent. With more than two losers for every gainer, a broad price depreciation across the sectors pushed share prices of most equities to their lowest in recent period.
The All Share Index (ASI)-the value-based index that tracks share prices at the Exchange, declined to 36,963.70 points as against its opening index of 37,266.86 points. Aggregate market value of all quoted companies also dropped from its opening value of N13.500 trillion to close at N13.390 trillion.
Despite the beginning of the earnings season for the first half with the release of six-month results of some quoted companies, most investors continued to trade on the sell side. Most sectoral indices closed negative, underlining the widespread price depreciation across the sectors.
The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 2.4 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 1.3 per cent. The NSE Consumer Goods Index dipped by 1.2 per cent while the NSE Banking Index depreciated by 0.9 per cent. However, the NSE Insurance Index inched up by 0.2 per cent.
There were 33 losers against 14 gainers. Okomu Oil Palm led the losers with a drop of N7 to close at N85. Stanbic IBTC Holdings followed with a loss of N3.95 to close at N47.55. Lafarge Africa and International Breweries dropped by N3 each to close at N34.50 and N37.50 respectively. Julius Berger Nigeria lost N2.70 to close at N24.30. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria dropped by N1.85 to close at N16.70 while PZ Cussons Nigeria declined by N1.70 to close at N15.40.
Total Turnover stood at 203.8 million shares valued at N2.39 billion in 4,178 deals. Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, which released an impressive first half result on Monday, led the activity chart with a turnover of 20.7 million shares. Access Bank followed with a turnover of 19.5 million shares while Zenith Bank placed third with 15.4 million shares.
On the upside, Dangote Cement led the contrarian stocks with a gain of N3 to close at N230. Dangote Sugar Refinery followed with a gain of 45 kobo to close at N17.95. Custodian Investment rose by 19 kobo to close at N5.70 while Eterna and Flour Mills of Nigeria chalked up 10 kobo each to close at N6.50 and N30 respectively.
“Despite today (Tuesday)’s loss, investor sentiment improved slightly, albeit still soft. Hence, we envisage that the sell offs will be continued in tomorrow’s session, but we do not rule out the possibility of a rebound before the end of the week,” Afrinvest Securities stated.