How profit-taking down equites investment by N1.42trn in one week

By Motolani Oseni

The Nigerian stock market closed the week lower, as profit-taking activities dominated the market amidst weak breadth and elevated volatility, while market capitalisation lost a whopping N1.42 trillion to close the week at N55.735 trillion.

Accordingly, the All-Share Index declined by 2.45 per cent week-on-week (W-o-W) to close at 101,858.37 points.

Sectoral performance for the week exhibited a negative trend as the NGX Banking and NGX Industrial indices led the losses, declining by 6.86 per cent and 4.16 per cent, respectively. Also, NGX Insurance, NGX Oil & Gas, and NGX Consumer Goods indices recorded a weekly loss of 1.48 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.14 per cent.

The market breadth for the week was negative as 20 equities appreciated in price, 68 equities depreciated in price, while 66 equities remained unchanged. Meyer led the gainers table by 60.70 per cent to close at N6.91, per share. Juli followed with a gain of 44.29 per cent to close at N1.01, while Geregu Power went up by 19.00 per cent to close to N675.90, per share.

On the other hand, Eterna led the decliners table by 18.78 per cent to close at N17.95, per share. Abbey Mortgage Bank followed with a loss of 18.39 per cent to close at N2.44, while Unity Bank declined by 17.79 per cent to close at N2.31, per share.

Overall, a total turnover of 2.478 billion shares worth N47.856 billion in 54,982 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 3.893 billion shares valued at N95.147 billion that exchanged hands prior week in 69,117 deals.

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The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.687 billion shares valued at N28.514 billion traded in 25,751 deals; contributing 68.10 per cent and 59.58 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Conglomerates Industry followed with 210.272 million shares worth N2.988 billion in 4,419 deals, while the Oil and Gas Industry traded a turnover of 203.777 million shares worth N2.139 billion in 4,544 deals.

Trading in the top three equities; FBN Holdings (FBNH), Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) and Jaiz Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 732.804 million shares worth N13.705 billion in 7,040 deals, contributing 29.57 per cent and 28.64 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Meanwhile, analysts on the Nigerian capital market said, the current bearish trend is expected to persist as investors seek refuge in fixed-income instruments amid dividend expectations.

Last week witnessed a notable correction in the local bourse, marking the first downturn in 16 weeks, propelled by sell sentiments particularly from institutional investors. The motive behind this shift in sentiment appears to be portfolio rebalancing for safety.