Stock Market Halts Positive Trends Depreciates By 0.14%

Kayode Tokede

The stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), yesterday halted positive trends, and depreciated by 0.14 per cent as investors’ profit-taking activities witnessed in FBN Holdings, MTN Nigeria Communication Plc, and 37 others impacted the market major index.

As FBN Holdings depreciated by 5.28per cent to N17.05 per share and MTN Nigeria with a decline of 0.18per cent to N274.50 per share, the NGX All-Share Index declined by 0.14 per cent to 65,401.82 basis points from 65,492.81 basis points it opened for trading.

The market capitalisation stood at N35.795trillion, a decline of N49.8billion from N35.84trillion.

Consequently, the stock market Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to 1.7 per cent and 27.6per cent, respectively.

From a sectoral standpoint, NGX Banking dropped by 1.8per cent, NGX Insurance dipped by 0.2per cent, NGX Oil & Gas was also down by 0.1per cent, while the NGX Consumer Goods advanced by one per cent.

The total volume traded increased by 67.4per cent to 583.09 million units, valued at N12.90 billion, and exchanged in 6,968 deals. Transcorp remained the most traded stock by volume at 144.49 million units, while MTN Nigeria was the most traded stock by value at N6.16 billion.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 39 stocks lost relative to 19 gainers.

The likes of Dangote Sugar, NASCON, Transcorp, Ometek and CWG gained 10 per cent each to N44, N40.70, N5.28, N0.33 and N4.95 per share respectively yesterday

On the other side, ETI led others on the losers’ chart with 4.11 per cent to close at N15.15, per share. Cutix followed with a decline of four per cent to close at N2.40 kobo, while Oando shed 3.70 per cent to close at N5.20 per share.

Access Corp went down by 3.27 per cent to close at 16.25kobo, while Unity Bank depreciated by 3.10per cent to close at N1.25, per share.

Analysts at InvestmentOne research attributed the stock market decline yesterday to the losses observed across major sectors.

“Going forward, we expect investor’s sentiment to be swayed by the search for real positive returns and developments in the interest rate space. We reiterate that this may be a great period to pick up some quality names with a medium to long-term investment horizon,” they said.