Stock market: investors lose N49bn on sell pressure

The stock market, resuming from the Sallah break on Wednesday, closed on a negative note with indices dropping by 0.08 per cent, amid sell pressure.

Sell pressure in the stocks of MTN Nigeria, alongside Tier-one banks, namely: FBN Holdings, United Bank For Africa (UBA), as well as Nigerian Breweries, SUNU Assurances, among other declined equities drove the market’s weak performance.

Specifically, the market capitalisation, which opened at N56.527 trillion, lost N49 or 0.08 per cent billion to close at N56.478 trillion.

The All-Share Index also declined by 0.08 per cent or 84.43 points to settle at 99,840.95, as against 99,925.38 recorded on Friday.

As a result, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return slipped to 33.52 per cent.

However, market breadth closed positive with 41 gainers and 15 losers on the floor of the Exchange.

On the gainers log, UPL led by 10 per cent to close at N2.75, Guinness Nigeria followed by 9.96 per cent to close at N66.25 per share.

Champion rose by 9.83 per cent to close at N3.24, Honeywell Flour gained 9.52 per cent to close at N3.45, and Veritas Kapital advanced by 9.46 per cent to close at 81k per share.

On the other side, Caverton led the losers’ log by 9.62 per cent to close at N1.41, ABC Transport trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.

Nigerian Breweries lost 8.37 per cent to close at N29, Wapic Insurance declined by 5.71 per cent to close at 66k, while AXA Mansard came down by 4.37 per cent to close at N5.25 per share.

Also, analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions rising by 233.02 per cent.

A total of 1.38 billion shares valued at N16.48 billion were exchanged in 9,899 deals, in contrast to 318.10 million shares valued at N4.95 billion traded in 7,302 deals posted in the previous session.

Fidelity Bank led the activity log in volume and value with 1.05 billion shares worth N11.32 billion, AIICO Insurance followed by 60.67 million shares valued at N58.90 million.

Veritas Kapital sold 55.73 million shares valued at N44.31 million, UBA transacted 21.64 million shares worth N480.50 million, and Zenith Bank traded 15.27 million shares worth N545.48 million.

Meanwhile, analysts at Cowry Asset Management, predicted a mixed trend trading, driven by profit-taking activities for the week.

They stated that sector rotation and portfolio rebalancing on the exchange are expected to continue.

According to the analysts, this is in anticipation of the second half of the year’s window dressing activities and the release of the May, 2024 consumer price inflation report.