Equities Market Opens Negative, NSE Index Down 0.36%
Lagos – The Equities market opened the week on a negative note as the benchmark index contracted 0.36 per cent to close at 35,358.73 points while the year-to-date (YTD) gain retreated to 31.6 per cent.
Resultantly, investors lost N44.8 billion as market capitalisation settled at N12.2tn. The drag on Monday’s performance was majorly on account of losses recorded in Nigerian Breweries (-1.8%), United Bank for Africa (-3.0%) and Lafarge Cement WAPCO (-2.9%).
Similarly, activity level waned as volume and value traded plunged 44.3 per cent and 62.8 per cent to 107.1 million units and N1.4 billion respectively.
Market breadth, a measure of investor sentiment, retreated to 1.2x from 1.5x recorded on Friday after 19 stocks advanced against 16 decliners.
Nestle Nigeria led the decliners’ table when it went down by 500 kobo, followed by Nigerian Breweries which slipped by 301 kobo, Lafarge Cement WAPCO decreased by 148m kobo, United Bank for Africa lost 27 kobo, while Guaranty Trust Bank dropped 10 kobo, among others.
Total Nigeria led 18 others on the gainers’ table with a gain of 600kobo, followed by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer which grabbed 60 kobo, Airline Services and Logistics nicked 34 kobo, Custodian and Allied Insurance appreciated by 17 kobo, while Eterna Oil and Gas increased by 16 kobo, among others.
Meyer emerged the most traded equity on Monday with an exchange of 20.005 million shares worth N14.003 million. It was followed by First City Monument Bank having accounted for 9.570 million shares valued at N9.921million, Niger Insurance traded 8.399 million shares valued at N4.199 million; FBN Holdings sold 8.094 million shares valued at N45.313 million while Transnational Incorporated exchanged 5.457 million shares worth N6.835 million.
The industrial goods index led sector decliners with a 1.1 per cent decrease owing to profit taking in WAPCO (-2.9%). The Consumer Goods index trailed with a loss of 0.8 per cent as a result of declines in Nigeria Breweries (-1.8%) and Nestle Nigeria (-0.4%) while the banking index fell 0.5 per cent due to price deprecation in United Bank for Africa (-3.0%) and Guaranty Trust Bank (-0.3%).
-INDEPENDENT-