Yesterday, the bearish performance in the local bourse was extended to the second consecutive trading session as profit taking in NESTLE (-4.2%),GUARANTY (-2.1%) and UBN (-3.8%) pulled the benchmark index down 61bps to settle at 32,763.35 points.
Following this, market capitalisation declined by N73.0bn to N12.0tn while YTD loss worsened to -14.3%. Activity level was however mixed as volume traded fell 10.4% to 154.3m units while value traded rose 33.0% to N2.7bn.
FIDELITY (23.3m units), GUARANTY (16.8m units) and UBA (16.2m units) were the top traded stocks by volume while the top traded stocks by value were NESTLE (N1.3bn), GUARANTY (N621.4m) and ZENITH (N246.2m).
Bearish Sector Performance
Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage trended downwards. The Consumer Goods ndex led decliners, down 1.5% following profit taking in NESTLE (-4.2%), DANGSUGAR (-2.7%) and PZ (-4.8%).
Similarly, the Banking and Industrial Goods indices lost 1.0% and 0.1% respectively on the back of sell pressures in GUARANTY (-2.1%), UBN (-3.8%) and CCNN (-2.1%).
On the flip-side, the Insurance index gained 0.4%, following investors’ bargain hunting in CUSTODIAN (+4.8%) and LINKASSURE (+9.4%) while the Oil & Gas index rose by 0.1% due to buying interest in TOTAL (+1.1%).
Investor Sentiment Weakens Further
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.6x from 0.7x recorded yesterday as 13 stocks gained compared to 21 stocks that declined.
Outperforming stocks yesterday were FIRSTALUM (+10.0%), ROYALEX (+10.00%) and LINKASSURE (+9.4%) while the laggards were ABCTRANS (-9.1%), PZ (-4.8%) and HONYFLOUR (-4.8%).
Although we maintain a bearish outlook over the near term, we nonetheless expect a rebound in market performance today, Friday, the close of the week.
