Nigerian stocks sink further on GTB, SFSREIT, Transcorp losses

Nigerian stocks‘ loss deepened by 0.13 per cent on Friday as depreciation in the shares of GTB, SFSREIT, Transcorp and MTNN weighed on equities value and yield-hungry investors continued to plough proceeds from stock sales into bond.

Equity capital has come under pressure on improvement in yields on fixed income securities including bonds and treasury bills, and the frenzy has shown no hint of waning even where a number of earnings releases have shown improvement in companies’ financial performance.

Across the sectorial indices, the oil and gas Index took the worst bashing by reason of loss recorded by oil driller Oando.

Market breadth was negative, with 23 losers emerging against 17 losers.

The benchmark index eased by 48.69 points to 38,648.48 points while market capitalisation slipped to N20.221 trillion.

Year to date, the index is up by 4.03 per cent.

TOP FIVE GAINERS

Flour Mills led gainers, appreciating by 10 per cent to close at N29.70. Regal Insurance added 10 per cent to end today’s trade at N0.33. NEM advanced 9.73 per cent to N2.03. NNFM rose to N5.65, notching up 9.71 per cent in the process. Livestock completed the top 5, climbing up by 9.29 per cent to N2.

TOP FIVE LOSERS

SFRSREIT topped losers, depreciating by 9.96 per cent to close at N62.40. Unity Bank shed 9.59 per cent to end today’s trade at N0.66.

African Alliance Insurance fell to N0.20, losing 9.09 per cent. Sovereign Trust Insurance slumped to N0.24, recording 7.69 per cent depreciation. Wema closed at N6.15, going down by 0.61 per cent.

TOP FIVE TRADES

In all, 293.970 million shares valued at N3.770 billion were traded today in 3,7600 deals, showing 74 per cent improvement in liquidity.

Transcorp was the most active stock with 56.929 million of its stocks worth N45.948 million traded in 205 deals. Also, 40.879 million units of International Breweries’ shares priced at N210.689 million exchanged hands in 44 transactions.

GTB had 30.966 million shares valued at N577.159 million traded in 216 deals. FBN Holdings traded 14.875 million shares estimated at N603.285 million in 125 transactions. Universal traded 12.833 million shares valued at N2.567 million in 14 deals.