Cautious trading pushes equities down

• MTN’s shares fall further over N1 trillion fine
• Investors offload 42 million Oando stocks
Yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange [NSE] All Share Index [ASI] closed lower. In the view of analysts, decline in prices suggests that the nine months 2015 results released thus far have been factored into pricing of domestic equities and consequently, the results may not provide the expected tailwinds to support a rally – at least in the immediate term.

The banking (1.89 per cent), and oil and gas (1.39 per cent) sectors regressed the most, while the industrial (0.22 per cent), and insurance (1.23 per cent) sectors closed higher.

Therefore, equities market closed yesterday on a negative note, as NSE] All Share Index-ASI depreciated by 0.86 per cent to close at 29,572.90 basis points, compared with the 0.61 per cent depreciation recorded previously. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at 14.76 per cent.

Market breadth also closed negative as May and Baker led 14 gainers against 34 losers topped by Oando at the end of yesterday’s session- an unimproved performance when compared with previous outlook.

Market turnover equally closed down as volume declined by 61.50 per cent, against 158.33 per cent uptick recorded in the previous session. Access Bank, Transcorp and Continsure were the most active to boost market turnover. Nigerian Breweries and Guaranty topped market value list.

Volume shockers included International Breweries which led the list of active stocks that recorded impressive volume spike at the end of yesterday’s session.

Meanwhile, the effect of the fine on MTN has hit hard on the company as its share price fell by more than 12 per cent, on Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the biggest one-day decline since November 1998, to 167 rand. It was the lowest closing price since June 2013 and values the company at 308 billion rand ($23 billion).

Nigerian Communications Commission, [NCC] has fined MTN N1.04 trillion ($5.24 billion) after it failed to comply with a directive to deactivate unregistered phone lines before a deadline.

Meanwhile, in an historical loss reported by the company, about 42 million Oando shares were on full offer yesterday, as investors lined up to offload the stocks.

The company, in its nine month results released earlier, reported another loss before tax of about N52 billion, adding to the woes incurred by shareholders. The share price closed at N8.13, representing a 9.6 per cent drop. Oando has now lost 49.5 per cent year to date.