Bearish Run Continues Amidst Weak Sentiments
UMORU ABDULKADIR
The bears continued their tight grip on the Nigerian Equities Market on Tuesday as the market closed on a negative note, recording a straight seven sessions of losses due to sell pressure in medium and large caps stocks.
Precisely, the All-Share index dipped 297.1 basis points or 1.13 per cent to close at 26,383.21 points as against 26,681.31 points recorded on Monday, while the market capitalization shed N143.4 billion to finish at N12.734 trillion lower than N12.878 trillion attained the previous trading day.
Today’s downturn was impacted by losses recorded in the shares of Nigeria’s most capitalised listed companies, Dangote Cement Plc, telecoms giant, MTN Nigeria Plc, Nestle Nigeria, among others.
A breakdown of the price movement chart showed that Nestle Nigeria with N50 loss led the worst the worst-performing stocks’ chart, followed by telecommunication giant, MTN Nigeria which shed 200 kobo to close today’s trading at N116 per share. Dangote Cement also declined by 200 kobo to close at N140 per share.
While ARBICO Plc lost 43 kobo to settle at N3.89 per share, Unilever Nigeria depreciated by 40 kobo to close at N18.5 per share to round off the top five losers’ table on the day.
Conversely, Eko Corp emerged the best performing stock when it achieved 15 kobo gain at the close of trading on Tuesday to close at N4.15 per share. It was trailed by GlaxoSmithKline which inched up 10 kobo to finish at N5.8 per share. First City Monument Bank advanced by 7 kobo to close at N1.84 per share.
While Access Bank nicked 5 kobo to close at N9.2 per share, Nigeria Breweries also gained 5 kobo to close at N51.25 per share, among others.
On the volume and value traded for the day as can be seen in the market activity chart, the banking stocks were yet again the investors’ toast with four banks featuring on the top five most active stocks chart with Guaranty Trust Bank emerging the most active stock for the day, exchanging 49.2 million units of shares worth a N1.43 billion. It was followed by Access Bank with a turnover of 21 million units of share estimated at N192.9 million. Transnational Corporation sold 14.1 million shares worth N13.8 million.
Zenith Bank traded 11.2 million shares valued at N208.4 million, while Wema Bank sold 10.7 million shares estimated at N7 million to boost market volume and value respectively.
In all, a total of 196.3 million units of shares worth N3.551 million were traded in 3, 153 deals on Tuesday in contrast to 192.7 million shares valued at N3.548 million achieved across 3,594 deals of the previous day.
Commenting on today’s market performance, an analyst at Ecobank, Kunle Ezun said that the bears are still winning the match over the bulls, resulting in equity prices depreciation, adding that investors who have long-term funds can take advantage of the recent decrease in the share prices of some companies that have strong investment case in the equity market
He said, “We expect the current bearish trend in the equity market to continue due to general investors’ apathy occasioned by weak macro-economic indicators.”
He maintained that the bearish outlook would continue in the next trading session, as investors take advantage of the correctional profit-taking and low supply to position, ahead of the usual Christmas year-end rally as capital flow and repositioning in value stocks continue
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