Nigeria’s equity investors lost over N390bn in March

Nigeria’s stock market decreased by 1.90 percent in March as investors lost about N395billion, BusinessDay trend watch shows. This year, the market has dipped by 3.04percent.

Stock market activity in the last trading week in March played out as many analysts expected with regards to profit-taking in many counters. The market looks good to open April in red as investors prepare for Easter break, though value hunters could leverage opportunities in equities recent lows to re-launch into value stocks.

Top on the list of stocks that contributed to the market’s decline this year include ETI (-15.8percent), FCMB (-12.9percent), Sterling Bank (-16.7percent), UBA (-18.5percent), Wema (-17.4percent), Zenith (-9.1percent), Berger Paints (-11.6percent), Cutix (-11.3percent), and Dangote Cement (-12.2percent).

With many companies financials already released, investors’ appetite will be driven by the scorecards and corporate actions.

The equities market of Africa’s largest had opened the review month with capitalisation of N20.823trillion and benchmark performance indicator (All Share Index) at 39,799.89 points, but as at Wednesday, March 31 they stood lower at N20.428trillion and 39,045.13 points.

Read Also: Nigeria’s equities market erases previous day’s gain

Other equities that have declined remarkably this year are: Nigerian Breweries (-13.4percent), Conoil (-18.2percent), MRS (-12percent), Oando (-15.9percent), FTN Cocoa (-30.3percent), Transcorp (-10percent), Sunu Assurance (-26.7percent), Africa Prudential (-14.4percent), Deap Capital (-20percent), and University Press (-16.4percent).

The market moved further into the negative region as sell pressure impacted Wednesday’s trading session. The All Share Index (ASI) and market capitalisation moved further down by 0.57percent or N116billion from preceding day’s 39,267.11 points and N20.544trillion to 39,045.13 points and N20.428trillion respectively.

This week, the market has decreased by 0.44percent. In 3,990 deals, investors exchanged 347,173,467 units valued at N2.803billion. Wema, Union Bank, Zenith Bank, FBN Holdings and GTBank were the most traded stocks on Wednesday.