Investors lose N168bn in one week over profit-taking

Investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) lost N168 billion last week as listed companies continued to submit weak first-quarter results for the period ended March 31, 2020.

Profit-taking across Dangote Cement  Plc that depreciated by 4.4 per cent, Nestle Nigeria Plc down by 5.9 per cent and Tier-1  banks stocks caused a retrace in market performance, after last week’s whopping gain.

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The market capitalization of the NSE dropped to N11.778 trillion from N11.946 trillion reported in the prior week’s transaction as investors profit-taking in listed banking, Consumer goods, Oil & gas shares.

The NSE All-Share Index dropped by 1.41 per cent or 322.21 basis points to 22,599.38 basis points from  22,921.59 basis points it opened for trading. This brings the equities market Month-Till-Date and Year-Till-Date performance to 6.10  and negative 15.81 per cent respectively.

A total turnover of 1.195 billion shares worth N13.979 billion in 20,591 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.495 billion shares valued at N12.894 billion that exchanged hands last week in 20,982 deals.

Analysing by sectors, last week’s performance was negative as declines in the Banking index that dropped by 5.2per cent, Consumer Goods  declined by 2.6 per cent, and Oil & Gas that dropped by 1.7 per cent masked the gains recorded in the Insurance index with  1.2 per cent and Industrial Goods that added 0.7 per cent.

“As risks remain on the horizon following the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and as economic fortunes remain wary, we continue to advise investors to trade cautiously and seek only fundamentally justified stocks,” analysts at Cordros capital explained.

The weekly NSE report stated, “The Financial Services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 965.571 million shares valued at N7.811 billion traded in 11,710 deals; thus contributing 80.79 per cent and 55.88 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

“The Industrial Goods industry followed with 54.803 million shares worth N1.509 billion in 2,043 deals. The third place was the Conglomerates industry, with a turnover of 54.114 million shares worth N111.406 million in 460 deals.

Trading in the Top Three Equities namely, FBN Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 581.950 million shares worth N6.363 billion in 7,185 deals, contributing 48.69per cent and 45.52 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.”