Domestic equities shed N366bn as selloff on heavyweight stocks drag market down

By Amaka Ifeakandu

Lagos

The Nigeria equities market closed the week on a negative note, shedding N366 billion as widespread sell-offs in heavyweight stocks dragged down the market performance.

Market capitalisation of listed equities fell by 0.23 per cent to N160.077 trillion, eroding approximately N366 billion in market value.

The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.25 per cent week-on-week to settle at 249,712.37 points, bringing year-to-date returns to moderate to 60.47 per cent , reflecting increasingly cautious and risk-averse investor sentiment across the domestic Exchange.

Market breadth declined further, closing negative with 43 gainers against  53 decliners, signaling limited and highly selective buying interest. 

Trading activity for the week showed that volume of trades, valued and deals declined by 50.14 per cent, 56.75 per cent and 16.93 per cent respectively.

In all investors traded 3.875 billion shares valued at N161.757 billion in 334.745 deals against 7.772 billion shares worth N374.040 billion exchanged hands in 402945 deals in the previous week.

The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 2.410 billion shares valued at N69.712 billion traded in 126,919 deals, contributing 62.19 per cent and 43.10 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. 

The Services Industry followed with 409.306 million shares worth N5.409 billion in 25,908 deals. Third place was the Oil & Gas Industry, with a turnover of 294.859 million shares worth N31.496 billion in 26,738 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely: Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc, accounted for 1.092 billion shares worth N19.527 billion in 21,683 deals, contributing 28.18 per cent and 12.07 per cent to total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Sectoral performance closed mixed, with selective gains offset by broad-based weakness across key indices. The Banking sector led performance, advancing by 1.11 per cent week-on-week, supported by strong buying interest in Stanbic IBTC, Zenith Bank, and Fidelity Bank. 

The Consumer Goods sector gained 0.24 per cent buoyed by renewed investor interest in select counters, particularly Unilever Nigeria Plc and Mcnichols Plc. Similarly, the Oil & Gas sector edged up by 0.07 per cent, driven by gains in JapaulGold.

On the downside, the Insurance sector declined sharply by 1.77 per cent, pressured by profit-taking in Mansard, Linkage Assurance and Sovereign Trust Insurance. The Industrial Goods sector also fell by 1.24 per cent, reflecting lower sentiment in CAP, Berger and Tripple G, although gains in Wapco and Cutix partially cushioned losses.

The Commodity index inched up marginally by 0.02 per cent, supported by gains in Oando, highlighting pockets of resilience within an otherwise subdued market environment.

On the gainers’ chart, ABCTransport led with a strong 59.3 per cent rally, followed by UPL with 25.0 per cent, Japaul Gold added 22.0 per cent Skyavn increased by 20.3 per cent , and Enusell grew by 20.0 per cent. The growth was largely driven by renewed demand in select mid- and low-cap stocks. 

Conversely, the laggards’ table was dominated by Sovereign Trust Insurance, declining by 18.5 per cent, trailed by RTbriscoe with drop of 16.9 per cent, UPDC REITs fell by  14.3 per cent, Abbey Building Society dropped by  11.9 per cent and Nigerian Breweries dipped by 10.1 per cent, reflecting profit-taking pressure and sustained sell-offs in previously rallied names.