After six consecutive days of closing higher, the equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange retreated on Tuesday as key market indices declined by about 1.3 per cent.
The NSE All-Share Index fell to 24,514.91 basis points from 24,827.50 basis points on Monday, while the market capitalisation of listed equities lost N108bn to close at N8.43tn.
All other indices finished lower on Tuesday, with the exception of the NSE Banking Index, NSE Oil & Gas Index, NSE Pension Index, which increased slightly, while the NSE ASeM remained unchanged.
The dip recorded at the close of trading came on the back of losses by 19 stocks led by Champion Breweries Plc and Caverton Offshore Support Group Plc, which shed five per cent and 4.86 per cent to close at N2.85 and N1.76 per share, respectively.
Other losers included Learn Africa Plc, Axamansard Insurance Plc, Continental Reinsurance Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, Unity Bank Plc, Fidson Healthcare Plc, Skye Bank Plc and Flour Mills Nigeria Plc.
Sixteen stocks recorded price appreciation on Tuesday, with May & Baker Nigeria Plc, Glaxo Smithkline Consumer Nigeria Plc, Eterna Oil Plc, Portland Paints & Products Nigeria Plc and FBN Holdings Plc emerging top-five gainers.
May & Baker gained five per cent to close at N0.84 per share, while Glaxo SmithKline increased by 4.98 per cent to close at N21.93 per share.
Eterna saw its share price rise by 4.92 per cent to close at N1.92; Portland Paints was up by 4.28 per cent to close at N3.90 per share, while FBN Holdings appreciated by 3.71 per cent to close at N3.91 per share.
Analysts at Afrinvest Research noted that Tuesday’s pullback was triggered by sell down pressure on market bellwethers such as Dangote Cement (-3.9 per cent), Nigerian Breweries (-1.2 per cent) and Nestle (-0.5 per cent).
However, market activity was mixed as volume traded rose 2.6 per cent, while value traded declined 1.5 per cent to close at 290.9 million units and N2.9bn respectively.
After appreciating for more than a week, profit taking in Dangote Cement dragged the industrial goods index into a negative close (-2.1 per cent). Similarly, the consumer goods index shed 0.6 per cent on the back of sustained selling pressures in Nigerian Breweries (-1.2 per cent), 7-UP (-2.6 per cent) and Nestle (-0.5 per cent), while the insurance index was also down by 1.54 per cent.
On the other hand, price appreciation in United Bank for Africa Plc (1.7 per cent) and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (0.6 per cent) drove the banking sector index 0.2 per cent upwards.
The Afrinvest analysts said, “We expect market performance to continue to be driven by short term speculations and full year earnings releases.”