Nigerian Stock Market Loses ₦73 Billion As Investors Sell Off Shares

Stock Exchange Closes Trading Week With N30bn Gain

Investors at the Nigerian Stock Market (NGX) lost about ₦73 billion due to falling share prices in key sectors. The stock market experienced strong sell-offs on Monday as investors took profits after last week’s gains.

This decline came right after the NGX recorded a significant gain of ₦1.83 trillion last week. As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return on investments slowed down, especially with the release of Nigeria’s inflation data for January.

The overall market performance dropped by 0.11% due to major sell-offs. Investors sold off shares of companies like VFD Group, OANDO, ETERNA, and PZ, reversing some of the price increases these stocks saw last week.

Specifically, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI), which tracks the overall market performance, fell by 115.78 points, representing a 0.11% decline, closing at 107,937.74.

Despite the drop in market value, trading volume increased by 6.75%, meaning more shares were bought and sold. However, the total value of all transactions fell by 7.91%, indicating that investors were trading lower-priced stocks.

Atlass Portfolios Limited, a financial advisory firm, reported that about 511.10 million shares worth ₦12.81 billion were traded across 17,095 transactions.

Top Trading Stocks:

  • ACCESSCORP led the market in trading volume, accounting for 28.18% of the total shares traded. Other active stocks included AIICO (4.83%), UPDC (4.01%), FIDELITYBK (3.90%), and UBA (3.51%).
  • ACCESSCORP was also the most traded stock in terms of value, making up 31.51% of the total money invested in the market.

Biggest Gainers:

Some stocks performed well despite the general market decline. Nigerian Breweries led the gainers’ chart, rising by 10%. Other stocks that gained value include:

  • CADBURY (+9.97%)
  • TIP (+9.88%)
  • INTENEGINS (+9.87%)
  • ENAMELWA (+9.43%)
  • SMURFIT (+7.69%)

Biggest Losers:

However, many stocks lost value, with 41 companies seeing price declines. The biggest losers were:

  • IKEJAHOTEL (-10.00%)
  • LEARNAFRICA (-10.00%)
  • VFDGROUP (-9.66%)
  • OANDO (-8.43%)
  • PZ (-6.64%)
  • HONYFLOUR (-3.57%)
  • TRANSCORP (-1.64%)

Sectoral Performance:

Out of the five major market sectors, three recorded losses:

  • Insurance sector declined by 1.69%
  • Oil & Gas sector dropped by 1.07%
  • Banking sector fell by 0.40%

However, the Consumer Goods sector and Industrial sector recorded slight gains of 1.35% and 0.12%, respectively. At the end of the trading session, the Nigerian Exchange lost a total market capitalization of ₦72.50 billion, closing at ₦67.35 trillion, representing an overall decline of 0.11%.