Investors in equities market lose N20bn

 

…CBN to raise N117bn T-Bills bills at auction

Investors in the equities sector of The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) lost N20 billion on Tuesday, making an eighth consecutive session of value depreciation primarily driven by heavy selloffs across Oil & Gas shares.

Market capitalisation settled at N8.76 trillion from N8.78 trillion it opened for trading today, with the All-Share Index falling by 0.15 per cent to close at 25,461.34 basis points from 25,499.00 basis points it opened today.

Today’s performance further increased the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses to 6.46 per cent and 11.47 per cent respectively.

Significant price declines in Forte Oil, Eterna and Total weighed on the Oil & Gas Index that dropped by 2.10 per cent.

The Consumer Goods Index depreciated by 0.02 per cent also closed lower, on the back of losses in Nigeria Breweries Plc and PZ Nigeria.

The Banking Index thus appreciated by 0.05 index rebounded, albeit marginally, from yesterday’s loss following snippets of demand in Zenith bank and Guaranty , while both the Industrial Goods and Insurance  indices closed flat.

Investors’ appetite remained negative as market breadth closed with 11 gainers paired against 17 losers.

Forte Oil led the declining stocks by 9.74 per cent to close at N74.62 per share, this was followed by Livestock Feeds Plc and Total Plc that shed five per cent each to close at 76 kobo and N255.58 per share respectively.

Neimeth Pharmaceuticals and Nascon Allied Industries likewise dropped 4.88 per cent and 4.77 per cent each to close at 78 kobo and N7.19 per share.

On the other hand, Champion Breweries led the gainers chart with an 8.41 per cent appreciation to close at N2.45 per share. Flourmills followed with a five per cent growth to close at N17.85 per share, while Africa Prudential Registrars recorded a gain of 4.91 per cent to close at N2.78 per share.

Unity Bank grew by 3.57 per cent to close at 58 kobo per share and Mobil added 2.63 per cent to close at N195.01 per share.

 

Market performance as measured by the total volume traded showed an appreciation of eight per cent to 120.9 million units valued at N1.186 billion and transacted in 2,397 deals compared to 112.4 million shares valued at N858.5 million transacted in 2,532 deals on Monday.

Diamond Bank emerged the most traded stock for the day with 18.3 million shares valued at N16.6 million. Access Bank followed with 14.6 million shares worth N80.8 million, while Transcorp traded 13.7 million shares valued at N9.2 million.

Skye Bank was responsible for 10.1 million shares worth N5.1 million and FBN Holdings came fifth, exchanging 7.7 million shares for N23.1 million.

Meanwhile, The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced plans to sell N117 billion in short-dated treasury bills at an auction on Nov 30.

The bank said it will sell N45.85 billion in three-month papers, N18 billion in six-month bills and N53.32 billion in one-year bills. Payment for the purchases would be made on Thursday.

The Federal Government issues treasury bills to fund its budget deficit manage banking system liquidity and curb rising inflation. The 2016 budget deficit was estimated at N2.2 trillion, of which around N900 billion is expected to come from local borrowing.