The equities market on Wednesday went down again by N50bn after 19 stocks closed in the red.
At the close of trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, the NSE market capitalisation dropped to N8.715tn from N8.765tn, while the All-Share Index closed at 25,183.10 basis points from 25,329.06 basis points.
A total of 228.023 million shares valued at N2.39bn were traded in 2,958 deals.
The equities market declined further, shedding 0.58 per cent at the close of the day’s trading to settle the year-to-date returns at -6.29 per cent. The volume and value of transactions declined by 48.70 per cent and 34.47 per cent, respectively. There were eight gainers in all.
Vitafoam Nigeria Plc was the best-performing stock after advancing by 4.65 per cent to close at N1.80. The ticker was closely followed by the NPF Microfinance Bank Plc, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, NEM Insurance Company Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, which advanced by 4.46 per cent, 3.09 per cent, 2.47 per cent, and 2.04 per cent, accordingly.
On the other hand, Cadbury Nigeria Plc shares dropped by 8.77 per cent, recording the highest decline, to close at N7.80. The losers’ train was followed by Guinness Nigeria Plc, FCMB Group Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc, which dropped by 4.96 per cent, 4.88 per cent, 4.76 per cent and 4.43 per cent, respectively.
All the NSE sector indices recorded declines, save for the NSE oil/gas and NSE insurance indices which advanced by 1.01 per cent and 0.01 per cent, respectively. The NSE banking and NSE food/beverage indices recorded the largest declines, after paring by 1.18 per cent, 1.27 per cent, respectively.
Commenting on the outcome of the market, analysts at Meristem Securities Limited said, “We note that the few earnings results released have not stimulated positive investor sentiments in the market, as a few companies which have declared disbursements with attractive dividend yields have witnessed share price declines.
“We, however, advise dividend-inclined investors to take position in fundamentally justified counters with attractive expected dividend yields, while we caution that there might be no attendant capital appreciation.”
Meanwhile, at the close of Wednesday’s trading session, the open buy-back and overnight rates recorded respective declines of 1.00 per cent and 1.33 per cent, to settle the average money market rate at 12.09 per cent.
In the Treasury bills space, bullish activities were recorded as the average yield declined by 1.33 per cent to settle at 14.50 per cent at the close of trading. The one-month, three-month and six-month instruments logged declines of 1.81 per cent, 1.58 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively.
There were slightly bullish sentiments in the Treasury bonds space, as the average bond yield declined by 0.25 per cent to settle at 16.36 per cent. Yield declines were recorded on all instruments save for the May-2018, June-2019, March-2024 and July-2034 bonds, which advanced slightly by 0.07 per cent, 0.04 per cent, 0.04 per cent and 0.03 per cent, respectively.
The naira traded flat at the parallel foreign exchange market, closing the day at N455/dollar. However, at the interbank forex market, the currency appreciated marginally by 0.08 per cent, to close at N305.25/dollar.
