29 September 2016, Lagos – Investors in the Nigerian stock market, yesterday, lost N4.9 billion as sustained profit taking in oil and gas stocks drag down the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE All share index by five bases points, bps.
Specifically, the stock market defied the two consecutive days of gains on the NSE as the All share index marginally trimmed 5bps to close at 28,248.86 points. Consequently, market capitalisation declined by N4.9billion to close at N9.703 trillion from N9.708 trillion.
Market activity was however mixed as volume traded rose 18.1 per cent to settle at 294.9million units, while value traded declined 27.9per cent to close at N1.4billion. In turn, total deals transacted decreased to 3,142 from the previous 3,170 deals recorded on Monday.
Meanwhile, market operators have stated that there are likely going to be mixed performance in the remaining trading days of the week.
Performance across sub sectors was broadly positive but for the Oil & Gas index which emerged the sole decliner of all sector indices, down 0.9 per cent as further profit-taking in Conoil led to loss of 7.7 per cent and Oando with a loss of 4.8 per cent.
The Insurance index gained 0.4 per cent on the back of price appreciation in Law Union with a gain of 7.0 per cent, followed by Continental Insurance with a gain 3.1 per cent.
The Consumer Goods index followed suit, up by 0.3 per cent due to bargain-hunting in Guinness Nigeria Plc which appreciated by 5.0 per cent and Flour Mills 4.6 per cent. Similarly, the Banking index rebounded from a 3-day losing streak to gain 0.1 per cent on account of Wema Bank ‘s gains of 4.5 per cent and Zenith Bank 0.9 per cent .
The Industrial Goods index closed flat. Meanwhile, investor sentiment improved yesterday as market breadth settled at 0.9 times from 0.7 times on Monday after 18 stocks advanced against 20 declining stocks. The best performing stocks yesterday were UAC- Property rising by 10.0 per cent followed by Law Union 7.0 per cent and Guinness 5.0 per cent while Ashaka Cement declined by 9.7 per cent . Presco dropped by 8.9 per cent and Caverton dropped by 8.4 per cent declined the most.
According to Afrinvest Research, “Yesterday’s weak performance of the benchmark index despite improvement in sentiment can be attributed to profit taking in Oil & Gas counters which offset the impact of portfolio managers positioning in other sectors ahead of month-end portfolio rebalancing. Yet, market performance continues to fluctuate in margins and is expected to remain soft in the short term in the absence of any major trigger.”
- Vanguard
