NGX Starts With N297 Billion Decline on Monday

On Monday, the Nigerian stock market ended trading with a bearish trend, following investors' profit-taking activities on a day the federal government issued high-yielding bonds.

Following the result, the NGX benchmark indices show a decline of 0.53% equivalent to net capital depreciation of N297 billion.

The All Share Index (ASI), which tracks all NGX share prices, declined to 97,708.74 points from 98,233.76 points when it opened for the day. Market capitalisation declined from N55.562 trillion to close at N55.265, signifying a N297 billion decline.

The overall negative performance was driven by price depreciation in large and medium-capitalised stocks such as Seplat Energy, NASCON Allied Industries, PZ Cussons Nigeria, eTranzact International, and United Bank for Africa (UBA).

As measured by market breadth, investor sentiment closed negative as 19 stocks advanced while 24 declined.

Top Gainers: Tantalizers and The Initiates Plc (TIP) led the chart with 8.70% each to close at 50 kobo and N2.50, respectively. Sterling Financial Holdings Company followed with a gain of 5.38% to close at N4.70 per share. Ikeja Hotel rose by 5.37% to close at N4.70 while University Press rallied by 4.65% to close at N2.25 per share.

Top Losers: Seplat Energy led the chart with 10% to close at N2,962.30 per share. PZ Cussons Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.91% to close at N25. eTranzact International lost 9.68% to close at N5.60 per share. Unity Bank lost 8.20% to close at N1.68, while NASCON Allied Industries declined by 7.50% to close at N37.

The total volume traded increased by 27.51% to 439.100 million shares valued at N11.377 billion in 8,607 deals. Notore Chemical Industries topped the activity chart with 74.426 million shares valued at N4.652 billion. Access Holdings followed with 43.054 million shares worth N749.944 million. Universal Insurance placed third with 38.332 million shares valued at N13.949 million. UBA traded 37.276 million shares valued at N903.088 million, while Regency Alliance Insurance transacted 31.994 million shares worth N10.276 million.

According to the move of the government and companies actively raising yields in the fixed-income market, investors appeared to be locking in profits and increasingly realigning their portfolios in favor of debt issues.

Analysts at United Capital said they expected activities in the fixed-income market to continue to stand as a strong demotivator toward equities investments.

"We expect the April 2024 Inflation report to stand as a key economic data that investors will watch out for this week," United Capital stated, referencing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which is scheduled for release tomorrow by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).