Toyin Samuel
Downtrend persists on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) last week as the market extended its losing streak, reflecting sustained sell pressure across key sectors as investors continued to react to macroeconomic headwinds, weak foreign inflows, and cautious portfolio realignment. The week closed deep in the red, weighed down by profit-taking in large-cap stocks and reduced risk appetite, particularly among institutional players.
With fixed-income yields still up and foreign investors largely on the sidelines, domestic players dominated activity, primarily engaging in short-term repositioning. The mixed performance of recent quarter three earnings results and subdued dividend expectations across several sectors have also reduced sentiment, leading to persistent profit-booking and price markdowns.
The All-Share Index and Market capitalization fell by 2.99% and 2.89% to settle at 149,524.81 points from 154,126.45 points previously and N94.998 trillion from previous week’s N97.829 trillion respectively. Year to date, the market has returned 45.17%.
A total turnover of 3.575 billion shares worth N107.043 billion in 146,518 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 7.479 billion shares valued at N145.442 billion that exchanged hands last week in 159,598 deals.
Twenty (20) equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than twenty-nine (29) equities in the previous week. Seventy-five (75) equities depreciated in price, higher than seventy (70) equities in the previous week, while fifty-one (51) equities remained unchanged, higher than forty-seven (47) recorded in the previous week.
Also, all other indices finished lower while NGX Sovereign Bond closed flat.
TOP 10 GAINERS
NCR led other gainers in the course of last week with 20.94% growth, closing at N19.35 from the previous close of N16.00.
EUNISELL, UNIONDICON, Honeywell Flour and UPDC grew their share prices by 20.17%, 9.93%, 9.50% and 6.81% respectively.
Other top 10 gainers include: Livestock Feeds 5.71%, ETRANZACT 4.33%, Living Trust Insurance 3.50%, ABBEYBULDING 2.86% and Okomu Oil 2.78% respectively.
TOP 10 LOSERS
Sovereign Trust Insurance led other price decliners, shedding 28.21% of its share price to close at N2.80 from the previous close of N3.90.
C & I Leasing, Sky Aviation, Berger Paints and International Energy Insurance shed their share prices by 20.16%, 18.99%, 17.41% and 17.01% respectively.
Other price decliners include: OANDO (16.75%), TANTALIZER (16.67%), THE INITIATES (16.02%), Champion Breweries (13.33%) and ASOSAVINGS (12.62%) respectively.