The downward spree embarked upon by equities listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) worsened on Friday as the market recorded its most bearish week in almost six months, causing investors’ wealth to shrink by N548 billion.
The key performance indicator of the NSE, the All Share Index (ASI), which opened the week at 31,041.42 points, lost 4.59 percent, its biggest loss since end-week September 14, 2018, to close at 29,616.38 points.
That put the market at its lowest level since the start of the year and deepened its year-to-date loss to 5.77 percent. This is despite a marginal gain achieved on Friday, which failed to upturn a four-day losing streak recorded earlier at the Lagos bourse.
Performance across all sectors was equally bearish as NSE consumer goods stocks got the worst hit with a 7.73 percent loss. Industrial goods stocks shed 6.48 percent, while banking stocks were down 6.09 percent. Only 14 gainers emerged out of 67 stocks that traded during the week; this compares to 53 stocks that appreciated in share price.
“The release of mostly unimpressive earnings results further soured sentiment in the market,” analysts at Lagos-based investment bank, Meristem Securities, said in a note to clients.
Checks by BusinessDay show that out of 91 companies that have released their 2018 financial statements in line with NSE rule which stipulates a 90-day expiration period for dealing members to file their results, 23 companies recorded losses for the year.
Med-View Airline, UAC of Nigeria, and Japaul Oil top the list of companies that recorded losses for full-year 2018, having lost N10.35 billion, N9.58 billion, and N6.59 billion, respectively.
An analysis of results released on NSE reveals that total net income of Nigeria’s most capitalised company Dangote Cement, Zenith Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank in 2018 was more than that of the entire listed firms at the bourse.
The three companies posted a total profit of N768.37 billion in 2018 as against an aggregate net income of N668.14 billion posted by 88 other companies.
When the total net profit recorded by the three firms in 2018 is compared with N545 billion garnered a year earlier, it represents 40.97 percent growth, while other listed companies only saw their aggregate net income improve by 11.5 percent to N668.14 billion from N599.34 billion.
OLUWASEGUN OLAKOYENIKAN
