Portfolio rebalancing, selling pressure open December trading on NGX

• As Financial stocks lead activities

BY BONNY AMADI

Selling pressure and portfolio rebalancing commenced the December trading session on Monday, keeping the market in the red and extending the cautious mood seen in recent sessions.

The equities market opened the month of December on a softer note, as the NGXASI slipped by -0.22% to close at 143,210.33 points.

The domestic equities market opened the week on a negative note as sell- offs in INTBREW which dipped by 10.0 per cent, DANGSUGAR losing 1.6 per cent, and WAPCO’s -0.5 per cent dip amongst others drove the All-Share Index (ASI) lower by 0.2% to 143,210.33 points.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -7.1% and +39.1%, respectively.

The total volume of trade declined by 19.7% to 1.47 billion units, valued at NGN18.67 billion, and exchanged in 28,956 deals. CORNERST was the most traded stock by volume and value at 908.82 million units and NGN4.59 billion, respectively.

Sectoral performance was mixed as the Consumer Goods (-1.0%), Oil & Gas (-0.1%) and Indus trial Goods (-0.1%) indices declined, while the Banking (+0.1%) and Insurance (+0.1%) indices advanced.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative (0.7x), as 26 tickers lost relative to 18 gainers.

INTBREW (-10.0%) and RTBRISCOE (-9.9%) led the losers, while NCR (+10.0%) and SUNUASSUR (+9.2%) posted the most significant gains of the day. Market turnover was N18.65b (~$12.88m), supported by block trades in Wema- Bank, GTCO, and ZenithBank, alongside a significant off-market transaction in Cornerstone worth N4.58 billion. Looking ahead, we expect the market to trade in a similar pattern in the next session.

Top five gainers

NCR opened the week and month as the highest gainer stock, appreciating by N5.45 or 9.97 per cent to N60.10 per share, followed by SUNUASSUR with N0.36 or 9.18 per cent growth, closing at N4.28, while CHAMPION closed higher at N14.00 per share, having expanded by N1.05 or 8.11 per cent.

MECURE gained N2.10 or 7.58 percent to end the day at N29.80 per share, while GUINEAINS closed the top five gainer stocks group at N1.18, having risen in price by N0.08 or 7.27 per cent.

Worst five losers

INTBREW led the day as the worst loser stock, dipping by N1.15 or 10.00 per cent, to close at N10.35 per share, followed by RTBRISCOE with N0.34 or 9.88 per cent loss to close at N3.10, while LOTUSHAL15 closed third in the group at N74.20 per share, having contracted by N7.80 or 9.51 per cent.

CORNERST depreciated by N0.47 or 7.83 per cent to close at N5.53, while DAARCOMM ended the worst five loser stocks group at N0.86, following decline by N0.06 or 6.52 per cent.

Top five trades

CORNERST opened the month as the highest traded stock measured by volume with 908,817,489.00 million shares worth N4,590,339,963.57 billion, followed by WEMABANK with 113,254,084.00 million shares worth N2,071,668,810.20 billion, while ACCESSCORP closed third in the group with 93,915,421.00 million shares worth N1,972,619,233.35 billion.

FIDELITYBK polled 59,873,976.00 million shares worth N1, 138,980,040.10 billion while ZENITHBANK closed the top five active stocks group with 25,019,107.00 million shares worth N 1,501,566,682.80 billion.