BUA Cement, PZ top laggards as stock market loses N730bn

Nigeria’s equities market continued its negative trend on Tuesday by 1.30 percent or about N730billion as investors sold mostly the shares of BUA Cement Plc, PZ Cussons, Honeywell Flourmills and NEM Insurance.

These stocks led the league of other laggards as investors in 8,783 deals exchanged 256,156,775 shares worth N6.628billion. Transcorp, UBA, Fidelity Bank, Zenith Bank and GTCO were actively traded stocks.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation decreased from preceding day’s 102,393.23 points and N56.028trillion respectively to 101,060.67 points and N55.298trillion.

This week, the stock market has decreased by 4.41 percent, pushing this month’s return to negative territory of 0.09percent. The market’s year-to-date (YtD) return decreased to 35.16 percent. Honeywell Flourmills decreased from N4 to N3.60, down by 40kobo or 10percent.

BUA Cement decreased from N158.80 to N142.95, down by N15.85 or 9.98percent. PZ Cussons decreased from N30.25 to N27.30, after shedding N2.95 or 9.75percent.

UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) was also down from N5.90 to N5.35, losing 55kobo or 9.32percent, while NEM Insurance was down from N6.95 to N6.35, losing 60kobo or 8.63percent.

Futureview research said, “We anticipate a cautious approach in the trading session. We advise investors to invest in high-quality stocks with strong fundamentals backing them”.

“We foresee activities in the fixed income market to stand as key demotivator for equities investments this week. The uncertainty and overall market expectation of a hike in the MPC’s next meeting (to be held on 26 and 27th of Feb-2024) may underpin a cautious investment approach toward risk assets.

“Given the tremendous value that still exists in the equities market, on the back of currently undervalued stocks particularly the banking stocks (which are currently trading beyond the oversold region), we still expect background bargain hunting activities, albeit overshadowed by the short-term negative sentiment, pending the release of FY-2023 financial results and corporate actions from top-tier banks, and other corporates,” according to Lagos-based United Capital Research.