Buhari’s speech send stocks into panic, Investors lose N426b

The gains recorded in the Nigerian stock market were reversed, yesterday as investors lost N425 .6 billion as a result of panic selling.

Unlike the Stock market, Forex trading is Online Consequently, the All Share Index plunged 4.3 per cent amid profit taking and Foreign Exchange, uncertainty speech by President Muhammadu Buhari.

After the Index touched a year high of 28,902.25 point on Friday, the benchmark index tumbled to 27,671.08 points yesterday , sending Year to Date , YTD return (-3.4%) back to the negative region. The market value of stocks, market capitalisation shrank by N425.6bilion to close at N9.5trillion.

Over the weekend the president — who once likened letting the currency weaken to “murder” — caused confusion when he emphasized the need for stability in the naira. He backed down a little from this position yesterday, but remains opposed to devaluation, according to his spokesman.

The President had said in his Democracy Day speech on Sunday that he supported a stable currency, though he would keep “a close look at how recent measures affect the naira and the economy.” 

The stock markets sharp decline was broadly driven by huge losses across the board, including market bellwethers such as ZENITH (-9.7%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.9%) and DANGOTE CEMENT (-4.6%).

Market activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 46.1% to 334.9 million units while value traded rose 11.8% to N3.1bilion In line with the above, all sector indicators trended southwards with the Banking sector index leading the pack, down 6.6% on the back of losses in ZENITH (-9.7%) and GUARANTY (-5.2%).

In the same vein, the Industrial goods index fell 5.5%, as investors sold down on WAPCO (-7.8%) and DANGCEM (-4.6 %). The Consumer goods and Oil & Gas indices also followed suit, declining 2.8% and 2.3% respectively, as NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.9%) and FORTE (-5.0%) closed lower.

The Insurance index also lost, 1.1% to close out the poor performance. Sentiments further wane Market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) weakened, dropping to 0.2 times from 0.9 times in the previous session as 9 stocks advanced in contrast to 39 decliners.

The top gaining stocks were TRANSEXPRESS (+9.2%), ETRANZACT (+9.0%) and UPL (+5.0%) while ZENITH (-9.7%), ETI (-9.6%) and FBNH (-9.4%) depreciated the most.

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