The loss experienced by Nestle Plc, Eterna, and Fidson Healthcare Plc caused the Nigerian Exchange to lose N51 billion in the new week, extending its gloomy trend.
According to The Punch, Nestle Plc, Eterna, and Fidson Healthcare Plc had closing prices of N990, N15.80, and N15.15, respectively, after declining by 10%, 9.97%, and 9.82%, respectively.
The local bourse’s All-Share Index and market capitalization fell by 0.09 percent to 101,995.53 and N55.81tn, respectively, at the conclusion of trade on Monday.
Researchers at Cowry Asset Management Limited had predicted that the market would continue to be pessimistic in the next week as it looked to economic managers for policy guidance and a catalyst to shift sentiment in the other direction.
“However, given the rising fixed-income rates and the conclusion of the monetary policy meeting, investors will start to realign their portfolio in quest of alpha as we predict more corporate announcements for the last quarter of 2023,.” analysts wrote in their market analysis.
While the value of transactions increased by 12% to N6.72 billion, the volume of transactions increased only slightly by 1.4% to 294.32 million units.
In comparison to the previous day’s result of 7,710 trades, the number of deals increased by 29% to 9,957, and the number of stocks traded remained at 120.
The banking industry headed the gainers’ list with a 1.35 percent increase, driven by purchasing activity in FBN Holdings, JaizBank, and Sterling Financial. Sectoral performance was variable.
The insurance industry gained 0.18 percent in response.
Conversely, selling pressure seen in Nestle, Dangote Sugar, and Eterna Plc caused the consumer goods and oil/gas indices to fall by 1.46 percent and 0.37 percent, respectively.
The market for industrial products was flat. A little improvement in the market mood was indicated by the 28 winners and 26 losers.
NASCON Industries headed the gainers’ chart with a ten percent closing at N66; Juli Plc gained nine and a half percent to end at N2.57; and FBN Holdings, which has been experiencing growth, gained nine and a half percent to conclude at N34.
Interest on the equities market side has decreased recently due to higher yield outlooks in the fixed-income market.
Additionally, the market has seen portfolio rebalancing ahead of the anticipated corporate earnings and results of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, which is set for Monday and Tuesday.
