Equities Market Loses N278billion as Brexit Concern Heightens

Nigerian Equities market on Monday, June 27 lost a whooping N278billion following the exit of Britain from the European Union, which sent stocks downhill across the globe

Following the panic from the ultimate exit, foreign portfolio investors led a major selling spree at the Nigerian bourse bringing market capitalization to N10.248 trillion against N10.526 trillion recorded last Friday.

To this end, aggregate market value of all quoted companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange dropped from N10.527 trillion to close at N10.249 trillion, representing a loss of N278 billion.

Market sources said the Monday’s selling pressure built up as a South Africa-linked financial institution that holds large foreign portfolio investments started to push out large sell orders.

Foreign investors account for some half of transactions on the Nigerian stock market. Brexit compounded the earlier downgrade of Nigeria by Fitch, which had been cushioned by the positive sentiments trailing the new foreign exchange (forex) policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The sustained decline shaved the average year-to-date return at the stock market to 4.18 per cent.

Price trend analysis showed widespread selling pressure across the sectors. The NSE Banking Index dropped by 4.08 per cent. The NSE Oil & Gas Index declined by 3.6 per cent. The NSE Industrial Goods Index dropped by 2.5 per cent while the NSE Consumer Goods Index slipped by 0.6 per cent. However, the NSE Insurance Index inched up 0.3 per cent.

Total turnover dropped below recent average with the exchange of 375.22 million shares valued at N4.03 billion in 4,229 deals. NEM Insurance was the most active stock with a turnover of 90.8 million shares worth N82.6 million.