Stock Market Investors Lose N89bn as Sell-offs Persist

• Stock Market Investors Lose N89bn as Sell-offs Persist

The nation’s stock market continued its downward trend as investors recorded more losses at the end of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange on Monday.

The market capitalisation of equities listed on the NSE dropped from N11.425tn on Friday to N11.336tn on Monday, while the All-Share Index declined by 0.78 per cent to close at 30,400.28 basis points from the 30,638.90 bps recorded on Friday.

The year-to-date return weakened to -3.3 per cent, while investor sentiment remained unchanged as market breadth stood at 0.4x.

Analysts at Afrinvest Securities Limited said the negative performance on Monday was on the back of the losses recorded by Nestlé Nigeria Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc and Zenith Bank Plc.

A total number of 222.583 million shares worth N3.342bn exchanged hands in 3,746 deals.

The top traded stocks by volume were Diamond Bank Plc (77.7 million units), Zenith Bank (19.7 million units) and FBN Holdings Plc (10.8 million units), while Nestlé (N1.1bn), Zenith Bank (N430.1m) and Nigerian Breweries Plc (N413.7m) were the top traded stocks by value.

The industrial goods index was the only gainer across sectors as it rose by 0.1 per cent, while the consumer goods index shed the most, down 2.3 per cent.

The banking, oil and gas and insurance indices fell by 0.9 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.

Fourteen gainers emerged against 34 losers at the end of trading on Monday.

The top five gainers were Diamond Bank, Wapic Insurance Plc, A.G. Leventis Nigeria Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc and Regency Assurance Plc, as they increased by 10 per cent, 10 per cent, 7.41 per cent, 6.25 per cent and five per cent respectively.

The top five losers were NEM Insurance Plc, Resort Savings and Loans Plc, MRS Oil Nigeria Plc, UACN Property Development Company Plc and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, whose respective share prices declined by 10 per cent, 10 per cent, 9.92 per cent, 9.90 per cent and 9.84 per cent.

Analysts at Afrinvest said, “We expect market performance to pick up mid-week due to bargain hunting in bellwethers, while maintaining a bearish outlook for the month as election uncertainties heighten.”