Equities investors lose N148bn as downtrend persists

Equities investors lose N148bn as downtrend persists

For the second trading day of the week in a row, equities investors in Nigeria had another bearish experience on Tuesday as bears refused to let go of the Nigeria stock market.

The market on Tuesday extended Monday’s negative sentiment with the benchmark index dipping by 0.72 per cent to close at 39,022.52 basis points due to sell-offs in BUA Cement (-5.7%), First Bank Holding (-2.7%), and Zenith Bank (-0.8%).

As a result, the market year to date loss worsened to -3.1 per cent while market capitalisation declined to N20.34 trillion from N20.49 trillion it closed on Monday.

Similarly, the level of trading activity waned as volume and value traded declined 42.8 per cent and 48.4 per cent respectively to 204.6 million units and N1.8 billion.

The most traded stocks by volume were Courtville Plc (27.1m units), Fidelity Bank (23.4m units), and, Zenith Bank (18.5m units) while Zenith Bank (N435.5m), BUA Cement (N223.2m), and Seplat Petroleum (N175.8m) led by value.

Across the sectoral front, there was a mixed performance as 3 indicators lost, 2 gained while only the ICT sector was flat.

The Industrial goods index led the laggards, down 2.6 per cent due to selling pressure on BUA Cement (-5.7%) and Portland Paint (-9.9%).

The Insurance and Consumer goods indices followed suit with 1.1 per cent and 5 basis points declines respectively on the back of price depreciation in Cornerstone Insurance (-7.3%), Linkage Assurance (-5.8%), and Champion Breweries (-9.7%).

Conversely, the Oil & gas and banking indices rose by 0.3 per cent and 3 basis points as a result of buying interest in Eterna Plc (+9.9%), Oando Plc (+0.7%), Wema Bank (+5.5%), and Stanbic IBTC (+1.6%).

Measured by market breadth, investor sentiment weakened on Tuesday to 0.7x from the 1.6x recorded in the previous day’s trading session as 15 stocks advanced while 22 declined.

On the gainers’ chart, ABC Transport Plc (+10.0%), Eterna Plc (+9.9%), and Transcorp Hotels (+9.8%) led other advancers while Portland Paint (-9.9%), Champion Breweries (-9.7%), and SCOA (-9.3%) led decliners.

NSE 30

At the NSE 30 on Tuesday, the Index decreased by 1.00 per cent to close at 1,555.92 points as against 1,571.69 points as on the previous day.

Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 93.27 million units. Union Bank and Ecobank were the key gainers, while BUA Cement and Fidelity bank were the key losers.