Equities market resumes week with 0.39% loss on sell pressure

The Nigerian equities market opened trading for the week on Monday on a negative trend with the All-Share Index (ASI) dropping by 0.39 percent, due to sell pressure.

Specifically, the ASI lost 108.32 points or 0.39 percent, dropping to 27,691.85 against 27,800.17 achieved on Friday.

Also, investors lost N52 billion in value as the market capitalisation closed lower at N13.472 trillion compared with N13.524 trillion on Friday.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Seplat, Forte Oil, Julius Berger, International Breweries and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria.

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

Also, analysts at Imperial Asset Managers Limited expect bargain hunting on stocks that have witnessed significant price deceleration to be prominent this week.

They however, do not rule out the possibility of profit taking, considering current investors’ weak confidence on the market.

Market breadth closed negative, with 19 gainers and 21 decliners.

Forte Oil and Seplat led the losers’ chart by 10 percent each, to close at N14.40 and N441 per share respectively.

Julius Berger came second, losing 9.95 percent to close at N18.55 per share.

Champion Breweries lost 9.47 percent to close at N1.53, while Courteville Business Solutions shed 9.09 percent to close at 20k per share.

Conversely, Associated Bus Company and Sovereign Trust Insurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 percent each, to close at 33k and 22k, respectively.

John Holt followed with a gain 8.70 percent to close at 50k per share.

NPF Microfinance Bank went up by 8.62 percent to close at N1.26, while Tripple Gee and Company appreciated by 7.94 per cent to close at 68k per share.

The total volume traded also closed lower with an exchange of 158.27 million shares valued at N2.3 billion traded in 3,595 deals.

This was against a turnover of 1.24 billion shares worth N3.29 billion traded in 3,644 deals on Friday.

Transcorp topped the activity chart with 31.76 million shares valued at N41.87 million.

Zenith Bank followed with 18.65 million shares worth N587.11 million, while United Bank for Africa (UBA) traded 17.85 million shares valued at N205.2 million.

FBN Holdings traded 14.07 million shares worth N181.27 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank transacted 13.45 million shares worth N824.07 million.