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Nigeria’s equities market extended its sell-off on Wednesday, with investors wiping N1.67 trillion off market capitalisation as heavy losses across industrial, consumer goods and insurance stocks pushed the benchmark index to its lowest level of the week.
The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) fell 1.05% to 242,223.10 points, compared with 244,802.11 points in the previous session. Market capitalisation consequently declined from N158.72 trillion to N157.05 trillion.
The latest decline came a day after the market lost N1.88 trillion, bringing the combined value erased across Tuesday and Wednesday to approximately N3.55 trillion.
Large-Cap Stocks Lead the Decline
The latest sell-off was driven by renewed pressure on several heavyweight stocks, particularly in the industrial and consumer goods segments.
BUA Cement was among the biggest large-cap casualties, falling 10% from N309 to N278.10 per share.
Consumer-facing giants also recorded steep losses. Nigerian Breweries dropped 9.76% to N74, while Nestlé Nigeria declined 6.51% to N2,800. Cadbury Nigeria fell 9.94% to N58.45.
Other major stocks under pressure included Transcorp, which declined 5.57% to N33.05, while FCMB and AccessCorp fell 4.87% and 4.16%, respectively.
The broad weakness left only 11 stocks in positive territory, compared with 44 decliners, although the breadth was marginally better than Tuesday’s four gainers against 62 losers.
Industrial, Insurance Stocks Bear Brunt
Sectoral performance remained overwhelmingly negative.
The Industrial Index recorded the steepest decline, falling 3.10% to 9,999.13 points from 10,318.23 points.
The Insurance Index followed with a 3.07% decline to 1,043.11 points, extending its 4.38% drop recorded on Tuesday.
The Consumer Goods Index also retreated 2.09% to 4,051.24 points, reversing the modest gain recorded in the previous session.
Banking stocks were comparatively more resilient. The NGX Banking Index slipped 0.53% to 2,493.73 points, significantly moderating the sector’s 5.29% plunge on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Oil and Gas Index declined just 0.20% to 5,761.75 points following its strong 5.76% gain in the previous session. The Commodity Index closed flat at 1,877.46 points.
A Few Stocks Buck the Downtrend
Despite the broad market decline, some stocks attracted buying interest.
Champion Breweries emerged as the session’s strongest performer, rising 9.90% to N11.10. VFD Group gained 9.52% to N11.50, while UPDC, Ikeja Hotel and Cutix advanced 5.88%, 4.58% and 3.06%, respectively.
Selected banking stocks also recovered. Zenith Bank gained 1.64% to N124, Sterling Financial Holdings rose 2.67% to N7.70, while UBA and NGX Group added 0.47% and 0.83%, respectively.
Trading Activity Cools
The market decline was accompanied by significantly lower trading activity, suggesting that Wednesday’s sell-off was not matched by the aggressive repositioning seen in the previous session.
Trading volume fell 29.04% to 534.45 million shares, from 753.17 million shares, while the number of deals dropped from 54,051 to 46,943.
Market turnover also declined 19.94% to N22.28 billion.
Sterling Financial Holdings led activity by volume, with 78.11 million shares changing hands, while Nestlé Nigeria recorded the highest value traded at N3.20 billion.
Dangote Refinery IPO Adds to Investor Repositioning
The continuing sell-off comes as investors position their portfolios ahead of the Dangote Refinery IPO, whose subscription window is scheduled to open on September 14.
The market’s two-day decline has pushed total capitalisation sharply below Monday’s record N160 trillion level. The slowdown in trading activity, however, could indicate that some of the most aggressive portfolio adjustments ahead of the IPO have already taken place.
Investors are now likely to become more selective as they weigh opportunities in the refinery offering against existing positions in listed equities.
Despite the recent losses, the broader market remains substantially higher for the year. The ASI’s year-to-date return stands at 55.66%, although this has moderated from 57.31% recorded on Tuesday.
FTSE Russell Reclassification in Focus
Attention is also expected to remain on Nigeria’s upcoming FTSE Russell reclassification to Frontier Market status, which takes effect on September 21.
With the Dangote Refinery IPO and index-related investment flows approaching at the same time, market participants are likely to navigate a period of heightened portfolio adjustments.
For now, the sharp losses across consecutive sessions underscore renewed caution among investors, with the direction of heavyweight stocks likely to remain critical to whether the NGX can stabilise after shedding N3.55 trillion in market value in just two trading sessions.
