Stocks Sustain Fall, Cadbury, Japaul, Multitrex Emerge Worst

• Stocks Sustain Fall, Cadbury, Japaul, Multitrex Emerge Worst

Cadbury Nigeria Plc, Japaul Oil 7 Maritime Plc and Multitrex Plc emerged as the worst-performing stocks on Tuesday after the Nigerian Stock Exchange equities capitalisation sustained a free fall for the fifth consecutive day.

Cadbury, Japaul and Multitrex shares slumped respectively by 9.4 per cent, 9.4 per cent and 9.1 per cent.

The market plummeted owing to sell offs in Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc and Lafarge Africa Plc, which led to respective losses of 1.8 per cent, five per cent and five per cent in the stocks.

Thus, the NSE All-Share Index dipped by 0.38 per cent to 41,686.36 from 41,832.63 basis points while the year-to-date return contracted to nine per cent.

A total of 409.208 million shares worth N3.918bn exchanged hands in 4,996 deals.

The equities capitalisation of the local bourse slumped by N57.1bn to N14.913tn from N14.965tn.

Activity level at the market was however mixed as volume traded advanced by over 21 per cent while value traded fell 25.7 per cent.

The top-traded stocks by volume were Fidson Healthcare Plc (85.1 million), African Alliance Insurance Company Plc (40.1 million) and FBN Holdings Plc (34.9 million) while GTBank (N826.7m), Zenith Bank Plc (N682.3m) and Fidson Healthcare (N424.8m) led by value.

On sector level, the oil/gas index led the bearish performance, posting a 2.7 per cent decline on account of price depreciation in Seplat Petroleum. The industrial goods index followed, declining by two per cent as Lafarge slumped.

In the same vein, sell pressures in NEM Insurance Company Nigeria Plc, African Alliance Insurance, GTBank and United Bank for Africa Plc, led to a respective losses of 3.9 per cent, 3.6 per cent, 1.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent, which further dragged down the insurance and banking indices by 1.1 per cent and 0.7 per cent, accordingly.

However, the consumer goods index was the only gainer as it appreciated by 0.1 per cent, boosted by gains in Unilever Nigeria Plc and Nascon Allied industries Plc, which appreciated respectively by five per cent and 3.4 per cent.

Investor sentiment was said to have improved marginally compared to Monday’s performance as 19 stocks advanced relative to 31 that declined. The best performing stocks were Unity Bank Plc, Unilever and Total Nigeria Plc, which appreciated respectively by 6.5 per cent, five per cent and five per cent.