The Nigerian stock market wrapped up the month of July on a negative note, following a record decline by 0.37percent on Wednesday July 31.
Investors offered for sale stocks like Nestle Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, among others. As earnings season comes to an end, market watchers saw stronger reactions to earnings on Wednesday’s trading session at the Lagos Bourse.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index (ASI) closed lower by 0.37 percent from preceding day high of 27,820.57 points to 27,718.26 points; while the value of listed equities on the Nigerian Bourse decreased from N13.558trillion to N13.507trillion, losing N51billion.
Twenty (20) stocks gained against 20 losers, pushing the record year-to-date (YtD) negative returns further to -11.81percent. Week-to-date (WtD), the market has lost 0.72percent of its value.
Nestle led the losers table after its share price decreased from N1,299.5 to N,1270, losing N29.5 or 2.27percent; followed by Nigerian Breweries Plc which declined from N55 to N50, losing N5 or 9.09percent.
On the gainers table, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc led the pack, after its share price rose from N18.75 to N20.6, adding N1.85 or 9.87percent; followed by Forte Oil Plc which moved up from N18 to N19.65, adding N1.65 or 9.17percent.
“Amidst the mixed company performances and bearish response across the board, market activity picked up towards market close due to end of month trading as investors worked to rebalance index funds,” said analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Capital.
Zenith Bank Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, UBA Plc, GTBank Plc and Transcorp Plc were actively traded stocks. In 3,937 deals, stock dealers exchanged 251,930,298 units valued at N4.128billion.
“Despite the mixed results, the looming bearish sentiment in the market outweighed the effects of earnings. As such, we expect the negative sentiment to filter into the new month with less activity than Wednesday’s session”, the analysts said.
