Capitalisation dips by N140b amid losses in Stanbic IBTC, Nestle, others

Negative sentiments resurfaced on the equities sector of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) yesterday as market capitalisation depreciated by N140 billion amid losses in Stanbic IBTC, Nestle and 23 stocks.

Specifically, at the close of transactions yesterday, market capitalisation of listed equities declined by 0.4 per cent to N36.864 trillion from N37.004 trillion reported the previous day.

Also, the All Share Index (ASI), which measures the performance of listed equities also depreciated by 254.43 basis points to 67098.80 points from 66353.23 points traded on Wednesday.

The downturn was impacted by losses in large and medium capitalised stocks among, which are; Stanbic IBTC, Nestle, NASCON, Nigerian Breweries, MTN Nigeria and Accesscorp.

Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage, said: “With WTD return at a negative 15bps, we are likely to see the market close the week in the red, as investors take profit on recent gainers.”

Afrinvest said: “Investors sentiments as measured by market breadth weakened to 0.08x from 0.02x in the prior session as 19 stocks advanced and 16 declined, in the final trading for the week, we anticipate the market to close negative due to weak investors sentiment.”

On the price movement chart, Learn Africa led gainers’ table in percentage terms with 10 per cent to close at N3.30 kobo while Daar Communication followed with 9.52 per cent loss to close at 23 kobo. UPDC gained eight per cent to close at N1.35 kobo, Thomas Wyatts added 6.80 per cent to N3.30 kobo; SUNU Assurance gained 6.67 per cent to close at N1.12 kobo.

However, Mcnichols recorded the highest loss, dropping 8.82 per cent to close at 62 kobo. Omatek trailed with a loss of 8.70 per cent to close at 42 kobo, Stanbic IBTC was down by 8.49 per cent to close at N69.55 kobo. Ikeja Hotel declined by 6.98 per cent to close at N2.93 kobo.

On the activity chart, investors traded 298.687 million shares valued at N4.483 billion in 5453 deals against 397.970 million shares worth N4.699 billion traded in 6165 deals.

United Bank for Africa led market activities with 56.287 million shares valued at N1.053 billion, Fidelity Bank followed with account of 33.882 million shares worth N282.308 million, AccessCorp traded 22.173 million shares cost N364.027 million, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria exchanged 21.823 million shares valued at N135.261 million, Ellah Lakes sold a total of 20.195 million shares valued at N81.726 million.