Nigeria equities lose N63bn amid sell pressure

Trading on the nation’s bourse returned to negative territory on Tuesday with crucial market indices dropping by 0.46 per cent following loses in 20 stocks.

Specifically, the All Share Index (ASI) decreased by 129.79 points, representing a loss of 0.46 per cent to close at 27,820.57 against 27,950.36 posted on Monday. Also, the market capitalisation, which opened at N13.621 trillion, lost N64 billion to close at N13.558 trillion.

The downtrend was impacted by losses recorded in large and medium capitalised stocks, amongst which are: Nestle Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Flour Mills, Guaranty Trust Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA).

Cordros Capital Limited re-emphasised its outlook for equities in the short to medium term remains conservative, in the absence of any catalyst to drive positive market returns.

Market breadth closed negative, with 11 gainers against 20 laggards. Japaul Oil & Maritime Services led the losers’ chart by 8.70 per cent to close at 21k per share. Nigerian Breweries followed with a decline of 8.33 per cent to close at N55, while Lasaco Assurance shed 8.11 per cent to close at 34k per share. Wema Bank lost 3.23 per cent to close at 60k, while Transcorp declined by 3.03 per cent to close at 96k per share.

Conversely, Mutual Benefit Assurance recorded the highest price gain of 10 per cent, to close at 22k per share. Ikeja Hotels followed with a gain of 8.96 per cent to close at N1.46, while Unity Bank appreciated by 8.62 per cent to close at 63k per share. Vitafoam Nigeria went up by 5.13 per cent to close at N4.30, while Julius Berger appreciated by 3.59 per cent to close at N18.75 per share.

However, the volume of shares traded rose by 66.7 per cent to 155.21 million shares, worth N2.23 billion and traded in 3,192 deals. This was in contrast with a total of 93.11 million shares valued at N1.11 billion shares accounted in 3,056 deals on Monday.

Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Bank topped the activity chart with a turnover of 22.27 million shares valued at N640.11 million. UBA followed with 21.23 million shares worth N123.79 million, while Zenith Bank traded 14.97 million shares valued at N276.29 million. FBN Holdings traded 12.05 million shares valued at N67.53 million, while African Alliance Insurance transacted 10 million shares worth N2 million.