NGX sheds N1.62trn as sell-off in industrial stocks drags market lower

The Nigerian equities market closed lower on Wednesday as persistent sell-offs in heavyweight industrial stocks pulled the benchmark index into negative territory, wiping out N1.62 trillion from investors’ wealth despite positive market breadth.

At the close of trading, the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) dropped by 1.02 per cent to 249,062.37 points, reducing the market’s year-to-date return to 60.05 per cent.

Market capitalisation also declined to N159.66 trillion, reflecting cautious investor sentiment amid renewed profit-taking across major sectors of the market.

The decline was mainly driven by losses recorded in industrial and consumer goods stocks, with major laggards including BUA Cement, CAP, eTranzact, International Breweries and Deap Capital Management and Trust.

Sectoral performance showed widespread weakness, as the Industrial Goods Index posted the highest decline, shedding 3.84 per cent. The Consumer Goods Index fell by 0.45 per cent, while the Banking and Oil and Gas indices lost 0.31 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.

The Insurance Index, however, defied the bearish trend with a gain of 0.80 per cent, while the Commodity Index closed flat.

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Despite the overall market decline, sustained interest in selected mid- and small-cap stocks kept market breadth positive at 1.6 times, with 40 gainers outperforming 25 losers.

Top gainers for the session included Zichis Agro-Allied Industries, Associated Bus Company, Japaul Gold and Ventures, LivingTrust Mortgage Bank and FTN Cocoa Processors, reflecting continued bargain hunting in undervalued stocks and speculative counters.

Trading activity recorded mixed performance during the session. Total volume traded declined by 14.74 per cent to 600.22 million shares, while the number of deals dropped by 8.65 per cent to 58,958 transactions.

However, turnover rose marginally by 1.76 per cent to N32.71 billion, indicating that investors maintained interest in high-value transactions despite the broader market weakness.

Analysts expect the market to rebound in Thursday’s trading session as investors reposition their portfolios and take advantage of price corrections in fundamentally strong stocks.

The expected recovery, analysts noted, could be driven by bargain hunting in banking, insurance and consumer goods stocks that have recently come under profit-taking pressure.