Equities Market Drops N671bn Amid Investor Portfolio Rebalancing

Samuel Mobolaji

The Nigerian equities market closed the second trading session of October on negative by N671 billion loss, on the back of continued portfolio rebalancing by investors.

The All-Share Index (ASI) lost 1,167.97 points, representing a decline of 1.19 per cent to close at 97,064.42 points. Also, market capitalisation declined by N671 billion to close at N55.777 trillion.

The downturn was driven by price depreciation in large and medium capitalised stocks amongst which are; Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery, FBN Holdings (FBNH), CWG and Africa Prudential.

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth closed negative as 23 stocks advanced, while 28 declined. Seplat Energy emerged the highest price gainer of 10 per cent to close at N4,513.40, per share. Livestock Feeds followed with a gain of 9.93 per cent to close at N2.99, while Regency Alliance Insurance rose by 9.76 per cent to close at 90 kobo, per share.

Caverton Offshore Support Group increased by 9.63 per cent to close at N2.39, while AXA Mansard Insurance up by 7.82 per cent to close at N5.93, per share.

On the other side, Dangote Cement and McNichols led the losers’ chart with 10 per cent each to close at N478.80 and N1.35 respectively, while Secure Electronic Technology followed with a decline of 7.58 per cent to close at 61 kobo, per share.

UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust depreciated by 4.72 per cent to close at N5.05, while CWG down by 4.62 per cent to close at N6.20, per share.

The total volume of trades increased by 80.5 per cent to 268.394 million units, valued at N6.759 billion, and exchanged in 8,565 deals. Transactions in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA) led the activity with 37.091 million shares worth N994.000 million. Zenith Bank followed with account of 19.013 million shares valued at N716.660 million, while Deap Capital Management & Trust traded 13.897 million shares valued at N20.119 million.

Sterling Financial Holdings Company traded 13.061 million shares worth N20.119 million, while Caverton Offshore Support Group traded 12.097 million shares worth N25.369 million.