- Investors’ Appetite Drops, Mobil, Jaiz, Okomu Top Losers
Owing to weak investors’ appetite, the Nigerian equities market depreciated by N52bn, with Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, Jaiz Bank Plc, Okomu Oil Palm Plc, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc and First Aluminium Nigeria Plc merging as the top five losers.
The market consolidated on the previous day’s loss as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All-Share Index declined by 0.42 per cent, dragging the year-to-date return to 34.57 per cent.
A total of 144.452 million shares valued at N1.511bn exchanged hands in 3,716 deals. There were 14 gainers and 29 losers.
The NSE market capitalisation closed at N12.465tn from N12.517tn, while the NSE ASI stood at 36,165.93 basis points from 36,317.31 basis points.
The market turnover and volume of transactions also declined by 49.22 per cent and 58.50 per cent, respectively.
The top gainer was Champion Breweries Plc, having increased by 6.84% to close at N2.50. Other top gainers were Neimeth International Pharmaceutical Plc, Cutix Plc, May & Baker Nigeria Plc, and livestock Feeds Plc, which appreciated by 4.82 per cent, 4.74 per cent4.73 per cent and 4.44 per cent, respectively.
However, Mobil, Jaiz Bank, Okomu Oil Palm, Julius Berger and First Aluminium share prices dropped by five per cent, five per cent, 4.99 per cent, 4.97 per cent and 4.76 per cent, respectively.
Sector performance as measured by the NSE sector indices showed advancement in only the NSE banking index, which appreciated y 0.27 per cent.
On the other hand, the NSE insurance, NSE food/beverage, NSE industrial and NSE oil/gas indices declined by 0.02 per cent, 0.38 per cent, 0.53 per cent and 0.45 per cent, accordingly.
“We attribute Tuesday’s negative performance to weak investors’ appetite towards some large cap stocks in the consumer and industrial goods space. While we expect this trend to persist, we do not rule out bargain hunting activities on stocks that have recorded share price declines in the past week,” analysts at Meristem Securities said while commenting on the day’s performance.
Meanwhile, at the close of trading, the open buy-back and overnight rates declined by 10.75 per cent and 11.75 per cent, respectively as the average money market rate dipped by 11.25 per cent to close at 14.63 per cent.
Activities in the treasury bills secondary market were dominated by buy pressures as the average T-bills yield declined by 0.36 per cent to close at 19.99 per cent. The three-month, one-month, six month and 12-month tenors witnessed 0.96 per cent, 0.49 per cent, 0.34 per cent, 0.06 per cent declines in yield, while the nine-month was the only tenor to record yield advancement of 0.04 per cent.
In the treasury bonds space, the average bond yield dipped marginally by 0.01 per cent to settle at 15.91 per cent. Five instruments witnessed yield declines, one advanced while 10 instruments traded flat.
