The Nigerian equities market opened the week on a negative note, with the All-Share Index of the Nigerian Exchange declining by 1.26% to close at 145,159.77 points on Monday.
The downturn erased approximately N1.17tn from investors’ portfolios, bringing total market capitalisation down to N92.3tn.
Market data showed that the decline was driven primarily by significant sell-offs in Dangote Cement, which fell by the maximum 10%, as well as losses across tier-1 banking stocks such as Zenith Bank (-1.64%), Access Holdings (-3.26%), and FBN Holdings (-2.76%).
Despite the overall bearish sentiment, market breadth remained positive. Twenty-eight stocks gained compared to 24 losers. Sovereign Insurance led the gainers with a 9.97% rise, while Dangote Cement and Enamelware both topped the losers’ chart, shedding 10%.
Market activity eased following last Friday’s unusually high turnover fueled by off-market trades in Cornerstone Insurance. Total traded volume dropped sharply by 92.1% to 388.2 million units, while total value fell by 26.3% to N31.1bn. Tantalizer was the most traded stock by volume at 57.1 million units, while Aradel Holdings dominated value turnover with N21.5bn—representing 69% of total market value. This follows Tantalizer’s announcement last Friday of a multi-million-dollar, five-year export deal with a US-based firm for premium prawns and shrimps.
Sector performance was broadly negative. The Industrial Goods Index recorded the steepest loss, falling 4.48% due to sustained pressure on Dangote Cement. The Oil & Gas Index slipped 1.18% on losses in Oando and Aradel, while the Banking Index declined 1.01%. The Consumer Goods Index dipped marginally by 0.02%. The Insurance Index, however, edged up 0.07% on gains in Sovereign Insurance.
Cowry Asset Management attributed Monday’s downturn to widespread profit-taking. The firm noted that the decline in market capitalisation occurred despite the listing of 1.96 billion ordinary shares of Chams Holding through a private placement, highlighting the intensity of sell-side activity.
The firm also observed heightened retail participation, reflected in trading patterns: although total volume plunged 92.64% to 360.6 million units and value dropped 26.88% to N30.9bn, the number of deals rose 15.83% to 27,975, indicating increased activity in smaller trade sizes.
Meanwhile, new inflation data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed further easing in Nigeria’s inflation rate. Headline inflation moderated to 16.1% year-on-year in October, down from 18.0% in September.
Both food and core inflation indexes also declined, settling at 13.1% YoY and 18.7% YoY, respectively, compared to 16.9% and 19.5% in the previous month. However, on a month-on-month basis, headline inflation inched up by 0.9%, slightly higher than the 0.7% recorded in September.
