Bears Tighten Grip on NGX as Investors Offload MTN, Nestle, Others

By Dipo Olowookere

The bears consolidated their dominance on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Tuesday amid sustained selling pressure triggered by profit-taking in financial and consumer goods stocks.

Equities like MTN Nigeria, Nestle Nigeria, Zenith Bank, GTCO, Dangote Sugar and others suffered losses during the session.

The increase in the interim dividend payout by UBA and its outstanding performance in the first half of the year could not persuade traders to slow down in their profit-booking activities.

At the close of transactions, the stock market further shrank by 0.80 per cent, with the banking, insurance, and consumer goods sectors going down by 2.60 per cent, 2.31 per cent, and 1.72 per cent, respectively, while the industrial goods index closed higher by 0.03 per cent, with the energy counter closing flat.

As a result of the massive sell-off, the All-Share Index (ASI) dropped 535.98 points to settle at 66,760.20 points compared with Monday’s 67,296.18 points, and the market capitalisation shed N294 billion to finish at N36.538 trillion, in contrast to the previous day’s N36.832 trillion.

Business Post reports that investor sentiment remained weak as the bourse ended with 16 appreciating stocks and 45 depreciating stocks led by eTranzact and Regency Alliance, which fell by 10.00 per cent each to close at N8.10 and 36 Kobo apiece. NASCON lost 9.96 per cent to finish at N47.00, Dangote Sugar shed 9.96 per cent to end at N52.00, and Unity Bank declined by 9.92 per cent to N1.09.

But Chellarams and CWG led the gainers’ log after they chalked up 10.00 per cent each to trade at N3.19 and N6.93 apiece, Vitafoam grew by 9.78 per cent to N24.70, Oando rose by 9.47 per cent to N9.25, and Wema Bank improved by 8.94 per cent to N5.12.

The market was very busy yesterday, with the trading volume, value and the number of deals increasing by 24.11 per cent, 32.53 per cent and 6.46 per cent, respectively.

A total of 645.5 million stocks worth N11.0 billion exchanged hands in 10,554 deals as against the 520.1 million stocks worth N8.3 billion transacted in 9,914 deals on Monday.

Transcorp traded 87.8 million shares valued at N491.7 million to top the activity chart on Tuesday, as UBA exchanged 75.9 million stocks worth N1.0 billion. Access Holdings sold 69.5 million equities for N1.1 billion, Fidelity Bank transacted 48.3 million stocks valued at N387.3 million, and GTCO traded 39.7 million shares worth N1.3 billion.