Equities continue free fall as investors lose N44bn Tuesday

Trading on the Nigerian equities market swayed further down on Tuesday with a decline of 0.32 percent due to price depreciation on some highly capitalised stocks.

Specifically, the All Share Index decreased by 89.08 points or 0.32 percent to close at 27,602.77 compared with 27,691.85 achieved on Monday.

Similarly, the market capitalisation which opened at N13.472 trillion shed N44 billion to close at N13.428 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Seplat Petroleum Development Company (Seplat), Total Nigeria, Dangote Cement, Guaranty Trust Bank and International Breweries.

Analysts at Afrinvest Limited expected the bearish performance to continue as investor sentiment remains weak.

Analysts at APT Securities and Funds Limited said: “We are optimistic that positive sentiment will rally as the market is set for a rebound in anticipation of economic policies.”

The bearish sentiment was reflected across sector indexes, with the exception of the Industrial index which closed marginally higher by 0.08 percent.

The oil and gas index closed as the worst performer, down 5.80 percent owing to sell off in Seplat which ended head of losers list, while the lenders were a distant second declining by 1.04 percent. The NSE 30, and Insurance indexes shed 0.98 and 0.91 percent respectively, while the Consumer Goods finished unchanged.

Market breadth remained negative with 13 gainers compared with 23 losers.

Seplat for the second consecutive day led the losers’ chart by 9.82 percent to close at N397.70, per share.

Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals followed with a decline of 9.62 per cent to close at 47k, while NPF Micro Finance Bank lost 9.52 percent to close at N1.14 per share.

Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) depreciated by 9.15 percent to close at N6.95, while Sovereign Trust Insurance and Trans Nationwide Express declined by 9.09 percent each to close at 20k and 70k, respectively, per share.

Conversely, PZ Cussons recorded the highest price gain of 5.93 percent to lead the gainers’ chart to close at N6.25.

Courteville Business Solutions came second with a gain of five percent to close at 21k per share.

Cement Company Northern Nigeria and Chams went up by 3.57 percent each to close at N14.50 and 29k, respectively, while Wema Bank appreciated by 3.45 percent to close at 60k per share.

Transcorp topped the activity chart with an exchange of 29.67 million shares valued at N31.70 million.

Guaranty Trust Bank trailed with 25.17 million shares worth N692.25 million, while Access Bank accounted for 19.20 million shares valued at N128.52 million.

MTN Nigeria sold 17.02 million shares worth N2.35 billion, while FBN Holdings traded 15.63 million shares valued at N78.05 million.

In all, total volume traded appreciated by 16.04 per cent with a total of 183.65 million shares worth N4.50 billion traded in 3,558 deals.

This was in contrast with a turnover of 158.27 million shares valued at N2.3 billion exchanged in 3,595 deals on Monday.