Stock Market Declines, Lose N56Bn As 27 Equities Record Loss

Equity investors in the Nigerian Exchange Limited lost N55.78bn at the close of market on Tuesday. 27 firms recorded losses.

The NGX All-Share Index fell by 0.27% to 39,219.61 basis points from 39,326.67bps on Monday while the market capitalisation fell to N20.43trn from N20.49trn.

Investors activity increased as trading volume rose by 41.41% to 425.66m shares valued at N1.97bn in 4,553 deals on Tuesday from 301.01 million shares worth N1.54bn in 4,715 deals on Monday.

All sectoral indices dropped at the end of trading on the floor of the NGX except the NGX Industrial Index, which stood flat at 1,948.53bps.

NGX Banking dropped by 0.39%, Oil & Gas by 0.41% Consumer Goods by 1.94%, while fell by 0.33%.

The Premium Board and Main Board indices experienced a sharp fal by 0.03%, while the main board indice fell by 0.51%.

Topping losers’ chart was Nigerian Breweries Plc with a 9.93% decline to N49.45 per share. Livestock Feeds Plc that followed closely with a 9.83% drop to N2.11 per share.

At the close business, Lasaco Assurance Plc closed trading by 9.74%, UPDC Plc by 7.46% and Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc closed by 7.04% .

Top 11 gainers were led by Transcorp Hotels Plc, coding trade with 10.00% higher at N5.17 per share. Honeywell Flour Mills came next with a 9.74% increase to close market at N4.28 per share.

Other top gainers were Morison Industries Plc 9.73%, FTN Cocoa Processors Plc 9.62% and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc by 9.46%.

“Investors on the Nigeria equities market sustained the previous day’s bearish sentiment, as 27 stocks declined,” said analysts at Atlas Portfolios Limited.

The bearish sentiment was driven by price fall in some large and medium capitalised stocks.

“Following the decline of many fundamentally viable stocks and expectation of the interim financial reports of the remaining tier-1 banks, we anticipate the market should upturn the two-day negative sentiment,” the analysts added.

Analysts at Cordros Capital noted negative trading persisted in the domestic equities market, as profit-taking on Zenith Bank -1.0% weighed down the stock exchange.