Nigeria’s equities market opens new month in red

Investors in Nigeria’s equities market lost about N32billion on Monday, the first trading day in the month of November. The market decreased by 0.15percent at the close of trading session. The market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) decreased to +4.24percent.

The record dip at the beginning of this new month is in line with market watchers expectation that investors will take profit from some counters that reached new highs last month (N969billion gained in October).

The Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and its equities Market Capitalisation depreciated from 42,038.60 points and N21.938 trillion respectively to 41,976.79 points and N21.906trillion at the close of trading session on Monday November 1, 2021.

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In 6,384 deals, investors exchanged 378,150,583 units valued at N3.243billion.

Eterna Plc led the losers’ league after its share price decreased from N8.65 to N7.79, down by 86kobo or 9.94percent; followed by UPDC Plc which decreased from N1.80 to N1.63, down by 17kobo or 9.44percent.

Mutual Benefit, UBA, FBN Holdings, AIICO, and Transcorp were most traded stocks on Monday at the Nigerian Exchange Limited.

“In the last few months, we have seen a consistent improvement in market performance, from 1.74percent in August, to 2.55percent in September, and now 4.33percent in October.

“We attribute investors’ positive sentiment so far to persistent demand in the banking space, on the back of strong valuations; increased global oil prices improving players’ performance in the oil and gas space, and impressive results across board as seen from Q3 earnings results.

“Thus, we foresee this positive sentiment trickling into the new week, as investors continue to cherry-pick attractive counters across board. However, we do not rule out profit-taking in some names that have appreciated in recent sessions,” Vetiva research analysts said in their November 1 note.