Investors in the nation’s stock market on Monday (today) lost over N153.6 billion of their investment following the sell-offs of blue chip companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE.
Consequently, the sell-offs in blue-chip companies dragged down the All- Share -Index by 1.1 percent to close at 22,773.20 points.
Specifically, Nestle Nigeria Plc a, blue-chip company declined by -10.0 percent followed by another blue chip, MTN Nigeria -1.7 percent and Guaranty Trust Bank -0.70.
Meanwhile, Year to Date, YtD return fell to 3.5 percent while market capitalisation , which represents the total worth of equities investment on the Exchange declined by N153.6 billion to N14.5 trillion.
Activity level weakened as volume and value traded fell 34.1 percent and 69.9 percent to 200.2million units and N1.9 billion respectively. The most active stocks by volume were First Bank Nigeria Holding, FBNH (35.9 million units), Transcorp (24.6 million units) and Zenith Bank (18.6million units) while MTN Nigeria (N462.3million ), Zenith Bank (N369.1million) and Nestle Nigeria (N268.5million) led by value.
Sectorial performance showed that across all sectors were bearish as four of the six indices lost. The Insurance Index gained (0.9 percent ) and Industrial Goods Index up by 0.8 percent ) due to price appreciation in Law Union Insurance went up by 8.1 percent , Prestige Insurance 9.3 percent and BUA Cement 1.7 percent.
Conversely, the Consumer Goods Index dropped by -4.7percent owing to price weakness in Nestle Nigeria which lost -10.0 percent and Vitafoam -7.7 percent. The Banking Index dropped by -0.8 percent and Oil & Gas Index -0.6 percent on the back of losses in Guaranty Trust Bank (-0.7 percent ), First Bank Nigeria Holding -2.5 percent , Access Bank -1.5 percent and Oando -4.2 percent. Similarly, losses in MTN Nigeria -1.7 percent dragged the AFR-ICT Index by 1.0 percent.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth improved as 17 stocks advanced relative to an equal 17 decliners. The best performers were Sovereign Insurance which garnered 10.0 percent, Transnational Express went up by 9.9 percent and NPF Microfinance 9.8 percent while Nestle loss by -10.0 percent , Linkage Assurance -9.7 percent and May Baker -6.9 percent led the laggards.
Analysts at Afrinvest Research said: “We believe earnings releases will dictate performance this week, however, we are not optimistic about the market.”
Vanguard