Equities reverse gain as investors lose N370bn

Omobayo Azeez

The local equities market on Thursday reversed the gain recorded in the preceding session to relocate to the red territory as the equities investment tumbled by 3.12 per cent, costing investors N370 billion.

At the end of the day’s trading, the benchmark index that tracks movement of share prices lost 711.06 points to close at 22,078.58 basis points and the aggregate value of shares at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) fell to N11.506 trillion.

Market dealers explained that the day’s loss was fuelled by profit-taking spree by investors across bellwether stocks including MTN Nigeria, falling by -4.8 per cent and Dangote Cement with -3.3 per cent decline.

Consequently, Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) returns on equities worsened to 115.8 per cent and -17.8 per cent respectively.

Activities also slowed down during the session as volume and value of trade declined by 21.69 per cent and 55.16 per cent respectively. Similarly, market breadth followed suit with 22 declining stocks against 13 gainers.

The gainers’ chart is topped by AFRIPRUD as it gained N0.32 to close at N3.55 per share. INTBREW immediately followed with a gain of N0.25 to close at N5.50 per share.

Other top gainers include Dangote Sugar, Sterling Bank and LiveStock that added N0.15, N0.09 and N0.05 to their share prices to close N10, N1.08 and N0.60 per share respectively.

Conversely, Nestle led 21 other declining stocks of the day as it shed N30 to close at N850 per share. MTN Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and WAPCO declined by N5, N4.40, N1.35 and N0.70 to close at N99.5, N129, N12.15 and N10.10 accordingly.

Meanwhile, value of trade for the session was boosted by GUANRANTY which traded 100.709 million shares worth N1.83 billion; Zenith Bank Plc with 118.447 million shares worth N1.475 billion and Nestle that transacted 601,673 shares valued at N513.02 million.

The closed with a total of 525.848 million shares valued at N4.743 billion and traded in 5,450 deals as against 671.519 million shares worth N10.578 billion that exchanged hands in 7,247 transactions in the previous session.