Nigeria stock market moves halfway into bear region

Nigeria’s equities market furthered its loss path on Wednesday July 17 as largely capitalised stocks occupied the basket of top draggers.

The stock market is now seen halfway into the bearish region as evidenced in the record year-to-date (ytd) negative return which moved to new level of -10.78percent.

A “bear market” is when stocks see a 20 percent decline or more from a recent high. Current trading on Custom Street is marked by overall pessimism as investors have refused to buy stocks despite attractive prices.

The stock market decreased by 0.56percent at the sound of trade closing gong. Month-to-Date (Mtd), the market has lost 6.42percent, while week-to-date (Wtd), it has decreased by 1.83percent.

Chief amongst the stocks that lost their value include Nestle Nigeria Plc, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc and Flour Mills Nigeria Plc.

While prices of many stocks are at their new lows, they provide attractive entry points for bargain hunting investors.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All Share Index decreased to new low of 28,042.80 points against preceding trading day level of 28,200.88 points; while the value of listed stocks closed lower at N13.666trillion from a high of N13.743trillion recorded the preceding trading day.

Investors lost N77billion. In 3,449 deals, investors exchanged 243,717,849 units valued at N3.887billion. GTBank Plc, FBN Holdings Plc, UBA Plc, Zenith Bank Plc, and Lasaco Plc were actively traded stocks.

Nestle Nigeria Plc recorded the highest share price decline, from N1250 to N1245, losing N5 or 0.40percent. Julius Berger Plc also lost, from N19.95 to N18, losing N1.95 or 9.77percent.

Guinness Nigeria Plc followed after its share price moved down from N47.5 to N46, losing N1.5 or 3.16percent. On the gainers table, UACN recorded the highest gain, from N5.8 to N5.9, adding 10kobo or 1.72percent, while that of AG Leventis moved up from 30kobo to 33kobo, adding 3kobo or 10percent; while Chams Plc rose from 25kobo to 27kobo, adding 2kobo of 8percent.