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Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigeria’s securities market continued its bearish momentum as investors took profit in the shares of some blue-chip companies, which in turn, drove their wealth crashing N83 billion in two consecutive trading sessions.
The development however sent the market’s All Share Index (ASI) down 0.58 per cent to 24,883.70 points at the close of transactions yesterday. This forced the overall market capitalisation which fell N8 billion on Monday, to shed N75 billion after closing at N12.980 trillion.
The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in Dangote Cement, Guinness, Wapco, and Access Bank.
Reacting to the latest market trends, traders noted they had expected to see some profit-taking activities given a bullish performance in the last two weeks, even as they urged investors not to press the panic button but position themselves for possible interim dividend announcements by tier-one banks who were yet to publish their financial results.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Chief Executive Officer, Crane Securities, Mike Eze, attributed the string of losses on the bourse to market to uncertainty.
“Because of uncertain times we are experiencing at the moment, the market is not stable and what investors are doing is taking profit out of last week’s gain and so there is no need to press the panic button. The market is currently undergoing what I call a self adjusting mechanism and once the sell-offs are concluded, price of stocks becomes low and so there is no need to panic and so it’s either they wait or sell off whatever they have bought.
But I am sure that the COVID-19 prevailence will be reduced as we have seen some form of flattening curve as rates of infection particulary in Lagos is reducing and so they (investors) should not panic”.
Meanwhile, investor’ sentiment ended mixed as 17 stocks appreciated in value, while 17 others depreciated. Cadbury topped the gainers’ chart with 6.82 per cent to close at N7.05 per share, Nigerian Breweries followed with 6.25 per cent to close at N34, Mutual Benefits increased by 5 per cent to close at 0.21 kobo, Ardova garnered 4.94 per cent to close at N12.75 while Lasaco gained 4.17 per cent to close at 0.25 kobo.
On the other hand, Prestige led the losers’ chart with 10 per cent to close at 0.45 kobo per share. Ikeja Hotel was next with a loss of 9.82 per cent to close at N1.01, Chip Plc dropped 9.76 per cent to close at 0.37 kobo, Mansard lost 8.23 per cent to close at N1.45 while Courtville shed 4.76 per cent to close at 0.20 kobo.
Transactions in the shares of Access Bank topped the activity chart with 29.20 million shares valued at N191.60 million. Fidelity Bank followed with 27.77 million shares worth N50.05 million, while Guaranty Trust Bank traded 25.28 million shares at N625.55 million.
