Christy Animam
Profit taking and pullbacks continued on the Nigerian Exchange Tuesday as the composite NGX All-Share index closed lower in the midst of a slightly negative market breadth and low traded volume.
This extended the bear-run for a second consecutive session ahead of the last trading day of the month, just as the NGX index’s action yielded to a double top chart pattern formation.
The NGX All-Share Index, at the end of Tuesday trading shed 113.48 basis points, closed at 47,322.97 basis points after opening at 47,436.45bps, representing a 0.24% decline, just as market capitalization fell by N61.81 billion closing at N25.78 trillion from the previous day’s N25.83 trillion, which also represented a 0.24% depreciation in value.
The bearish sentiments of the day was driven massively by losses in the shares of Nigerian Breweries which shed -7.7% and that of STANBIC that declined by -4.2%.
As a result, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to +8.0% and +10.8%, respectively at the penultimate trading session of November.
Further analysis of the day’s trading showed that sectorial performance indexes were mixed as the NGX Banking and Consumer Goods closed 2.14% and 0.99% lower respectively, while the NGX Industrial Goods index led the advancers after gaining 0.12% followed by Insurance with 0.10%, just as energy closed flat.
Market breadth was slightly negative, as losers outnumbered gainers in the ratio of 14:13; just as activities in volume and value were mixed as investors exchanged 120.94 million shares worth N1.65 billion.
Volume was driven by trades in Transcorp, Accesscorp, Zenith Bank, FBNH and GTCO.
Meanwhile, the best performing stocks for the session were Chams Plc and Coronation Insurance, which gained 9.09% and 6.06%, closing at N0.24 and N0.35 per share respectively on market forces.
On the flip side, Neimeth Pharmaceuticals and Nigerian Breweries lost 7.97% and 7.66% respectively, closing at N1.27 and N45.20 per share, purely on selloffs and profit taking
Outlook
Investment experts expect mixed sentiment and trend on profit taking and portfolio reshuffling ahead of year end seasonality in the face of election uncertainty as pullbacks add more strength to upside rebound.
As such, investors are encouraged to take advantage of price correction ahead of year end seasonality, while equally paying keen attention to trends and events across the globe and domestically.
