Sell-offs on blue-chip companies cost equities N197bn

By Omobayo Azeez

As investors’ desire to sell off shares significantly outweighed demands at the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday, the end result was a streak of losses  which led the market to shed a sum of N197 billion at the close of the session.

As the market capitalisation plunged to N12.607 trillion from N12.804 trillion it opened the day, the All-Share Index which shows the rise and fall of share prices in the market equally shed 410.55 points or 1.55 per cent to close at 26,115.80 basis points.

The negative performance came on the back of overwhelming desire to sell off shares of some blue-chip companies such as MTN Nigeria, Dangote Sugar, GUARANTY, First Bank of Nigeria Holdings (FBNH) Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) and nine others.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) losses increased to -3.28 per cent and -16.91 per cent respectively.

Across sectorial performance, -0.82 per cent loss in the banking index, -0.18 per cent decline in    consumer goods and -0.31 per cent depreciation in industrial goods index collectively wiped off gains recorded in the insurance (+0.45 per cent) and oil & gas (+0.62 per cent) indices, respectively.

However, market breadth for the session closed positive as 17 gainers emerged against 14 decliners while eight others closed on flat prices.

In order of appearance, MTN Nigeria shed N7.50 to close at N105 per share. This is followed by ETI and CCNN, losing N0.60 and N0.55 to close at N6 and N18.10 per share respectively while TRANSCOHOT and FBNH shed N0.50 each to close at N4.90 and N6 respectively.

On the flip side, NASCON topped the advancers’ chart with a gain of N0.55 to close at N12.50 and WAPCO added N0.25 to close at N14 per share. Julius Berger, OANDO and UPCREDIT upped by N0.20 each to close at N19.70, N3.60 and N3.60 per share respectively.

Meanwhile, the total volume of trades moderated by 44.74 per cent to 188.79 million units, valued at N2.43i billion, and exchanged in 2,605 deals.

The turnover for the session was mostly driven by Guaranty with 26.326 million shares at N777.965 million; Access Bank Plc with 24.989 million shares at N238.799 million and Zenith Bank Plc, trading 12.687 million share units valued at N220.613 million