Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigeria’s equities market started the new week on a bearish note as investors took profit from the market recent gains due partly to the renewed appetite for Naira assets by foreign investors.
Evidently, the All-Share Index (ASI) dropped 0.26 per cent to settle at 31,344.24 points, while market capitalisation fell N31 billion to close at N11.688 trillion from the opening balance of N11.719 trillion posted on Friday.
Against that backdrop, the Month-to-Date loss increase slightly to 0.27 per cent.
However, in line with this bearish trend, activity level tapered as average volume and value of stocks traded declined 46.7 and 41.4 per cent to 222.68 million units and N1.84 billion respectively, and exchanged in 4,150 deals.
On sectoral performance, all sector indices – save for the Industrial (+0.01 per cent) index – closed negative, with the Insurance (-1.14 per cent) index leading the pack, followed closely by the Banking (-0.50 per cent), Oil & Gas (-0.40 per cent), and Consumer Goods (-0.17 per cent) indices.
Market breadth was negative with 29 losers and 10 gainers. Berger topped the losers’ chart with 9.68 per cent to close at N7 per share, Chip Plc followed with 8.57 per cent to close at 0.32 kobo, Mcnichols fell by 7.69 per cent to close at 0.36 kobo, AG Levent lost 6.45 per cent to close at 0.29 kobo while Royal Exchange decreased by 6.45 per cent to close at 0.29 kobo.
On the flipside, NPF Microfinance Bank topped the gainers’ chart with 9.59 per cent to close at N1.60 per share. Union Diagnostics was next with 7.41 per cent to close at 0.29 kobo, Oando increased by 5.15 per cent to close at N5.10, UPL rose by 5 per cent to close at N2.10 while Total surged up 4.10 per cent to close at N223.30.
Fidelity Bank emerged the toast of investors with the sale of 23.76 million shares valued at N56.66 million, followed UBA followed, trading 21.89 million shares worth N162.02 million while Diamond Bank sold 21.20 million shares valued at N48.47 million.
Reacting, analysts at Cordros Capital said, “Our outlook for equities in the near-to-medium term remains conservative, in the absence of a near term positive catalyst and amidst brewing political concerns.”