Stock market records first dip this week as focus shifts to Q3 earnings

Nigeria’s equities market on Tuesday failed to sustain previous day’s gain, decreasing by 0.12 percent as investors shift focus to third quarter (Q3) earnings season.

Banking and consumer goods stocks were on offer on Tuesday at the Lagos Bourse despite rally seen in oil & gas, insurance and industrial stocks. The record negative close pushed the stock market’s year-to-date (YtD) return down to 30.51 percent.

This week, the market has increased by 0.07 percent. Investors buy interest in dividend paying stocks had pushed the market higher at the beginning of this week.

Stocks like Guinness Nigeria, Africa Prudential, International Breweries, CWG, and UPDC were major laggards at the close of trading on Tuesday.

Read also: Stock market further defies Nigeria’s rate hike

Ahead of Tuesday’s trading, Vetiva Research analysts foresaw investors adopting a risk-off stance in the market, “as bargain hunting activity is expected to dictate sentiment in the market ahead of Q3’24 earnings”.

Guinness Nigeria dipped most, from N68 to N61.20, losing N6.80 or 10 percent. Africa Prudential decreased from preceding day’s high of N10.65 to N9.60, up by N1.05 or 9.86 percent.

International Breweries decreased also from N4.41 to N4.01, down by 40kobo or 9.07 percent. CWG was down from N6.45 to N6, losing 45 kobo or 6.98 percent, while UPDC dipped from N1.68 to N1.58, shedding 10 kobo or 5.95 percent.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation decreased from preceding day’s highs of 97,706.7 points and N56.145 trillion respectively to 97,584.81 points and N56.075 trillion. In 9,435 deals, investors exchanged 719,111,176 shares worth N8.341billion.