Banks recapitalization weighs down stock market, investors lose N633bn

Investors have continued to backpedal on the stock market, especially in the banking sector, on the back of the proposed recapitalization of the banks announced late last month by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The risk-off sentiment resulted in the loss of N633 billion as investors took profits from the banks, reports Vanguard.

Consequently, the market capitalization of all the listed equities fell to N57.87 trillion at the close of the holiday-shortened week from N58.498 trillion in the previous week, representing a 1.1 per cent decrease.

Also, the benchmark All Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) declined by 1.1 per cent to 102,314.56 basis points from 103,437.67 basis points in the previous week, driven by losses in the shares of Guaranty Trust Company (GTCo) Plc (-13.75%), FBN Holdings Plc (-11.15%) and Zenith Bank Plc (-5.88%).

Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) returns slipped to -2.1 per cent and +36.8 per cent, respectively.

Further analysis shows that activity level was also impacted by the shortened trading week, as the total trading volume and value weakened by 69.2 per cent Week-on-Week (w/w) and 50.5 per cent w/w, to 734 04 million units and N31.58 billion respectively.

Sectoral performance was negative, reflecting the sour mood in the market.

Precisely, all the major sectoral indices declined with the banking sector, leading with 7.2 per cent depreciation, followed by the insurance sector 2.4 per cent; consumer goods sector (-1.3%); oil and gas sector (-0.3%) and the industrial goods sector which fell by 0.2 per cent.

Analysts at Cordros Capital, in their projection for the week, said: “Looking forward, we anticipate that market sentiments will remain negative, with investors continuing to react unfavourably to the potential dilution stemming from the CBN’s recapitalization initiative.”

“In the medium term, we expect investors’ sentiments to be influenced by developments in the macroeconomic landscape and corporate actions,” they added.

Analysts at Parthian Securities, however, projected that the market performance will be mixed this week, saying: “We expect investors sentiment to be mixed at this week’s trading session.”