At the close of trading yesterday, the bearish run persisted in the domestic equities market as the All Share Index (ASI) declined 0.1% to settle at 31,040.84 point, largely on the back of losses recorded in NESTLE (-1.7%), STANBIC (-1.7%) and ETI (-2.2%).
Consequently, market capitalisation decreased by N15.5bn to N11.6tn while YTD return fell to -1.2%. Activity level weakened as volume and value traded shed 22.0% and 30.1% to 223.6m units and N2.2bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (83.2m units), ZENITH (22.5m units) and FIDELITY (16.3m units) while ACCESS (N529.9m), ZENITH (N494.7m) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N262.4m) were the top traded stocks by value.
Bearish Sector Performance
Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red. The Banking index was the lone gainer, up 0.9% due to buying interest in ACCESS (+9.2%), ZENITH (+1.1%) and FIDELITY (+9.1%).
On the flip side, the Consumer Good index shed the most, down 0.9% driven by sell pressures in NESTLE (-1.7%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%), trailed by the Oil & Gas index inching lower, 0.6% following sell pressures in OANDO (-4.3%).
In the same vein, losses in AIICO (-8.5%) and MBENEFFIT (-4.4%) dragged the Insurance index down by 0.5% while the Industrial Goods index (-0.4%) closed in the red due to sell offs in BETGLAS (-8.9%) and CUTIX(-9.8%).
Investor Sentiment Weakens
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.6x from 0.9x recorded in the previous session as 14 stocks appreciated against 23 decliners. NIGERINS (+9.5%), ACCESS (+9.2%) and FIDELITY (+9.0%) were the best performing stocks while CUTIX (-9.8%), BETAGLAS (-8.9%) and AIICO (-8.5%) led the laggards.
Despite the bearish run in today’s session, we observed some bargain hunting, especially in bellwethers that declined earlier in the week.
Hence, whilst the bearish sentiment continues to prevail, we are positive that certain triggers, including new company earnings releases and compelling attractive valuation, would propel demand in subsequent sessions.
