By Akpobor Jirue, Lagos
The Nigerian equities market experienced a bearish outing in the month of August as investors realigned their portfolios in the face of weak market internals and dividend earning season.
By the close of the month, the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) declined by 1.22 percent month-on-month, closing at 96,579.54 points, down from 97,774.22 points in July. This drop reduced the year-to-date return of the index to 29.16 percent, compared to 30.76 percent in the previous month.
Consequently, the market capitalisation contracted by N35.75 billion translating to losses for investors, even as it settled at N55.48 trillion.
However, the discrepancy between the ASI and market capitalisation can be attributed to the listing of 141.4 billion additional shares of International Breweries and 2.4 billion shares of Notore Chemical Industries Plc. But despite the overall negative performance of the benchmark index, financial experts insist that there were signs of optimism in trading activity on the Exchange.
Perhaps the optimism is anchored on anticipated renewed sentiment in the market as the total number of deals and the value of traded equities increased by 17.58 percent and 36.62 percent month-on-month, respectively, month-on-month, with 12,754 deals worth N31.58 billion. However, the traded volume saw a significant drop, falling by 68.78 percent to 573.96 million units.
On a sectoral basis, the market displayed predominantly positive performance, with four of the five major sectors closing in positive territory. The Oil and Gas sector was the standout performer, posting a 22.39 percent gain driven by strong interest in stocks such as OANDO, TOTAL, and ETERNA.
Trailing the Oil & Gas was the Insurance sector which followed with 11.5 percent month-on-month gain, while the Banking and Consumer Goods sectors recorded more modest increases of 6.96 percent and 4.30 percent month-on-month, respectively. In contrast, the Industrial Goods sector was the sole laggard, declining by 13.06 percent from the prior month, due to weakened sentiment in major players like BUA Cement, Dangote Cement, and Cutix. Elsewhere, Investor sentiment improved markedly in the month of August, with positive market breadth indicating 69 advancing stocks against 25 decliners.
Analysis of individual equities performance shows that the shares of RT BRISCOE top the list with a record gain of 367.11 percent followed by OANDO and JULIUS BERGER whose share price appreciated by 207.60 percent and 75.77 percent respectively during the month. On the other hand, the share price of UNITED CAPITAL declined by 41.29 percent to top the losers chat for the month, closely followed by CUTIX down by 39.96 percent and BUA Cement shedding 20.46 percent of its share percent to dominate the underperformers list for the month.