After starting the trading day on a positive note yesterday, sell offs across market bellwethers in late trading hours dragged the benchmark index 0.4% into the red to settle at 35,358.94 points while YTD loss worsened to -7.5%. Similarly, investors lost N57.4bn as market capitalisation reduced to N12.9tn.
The negative performance recorded today was largely due to losses in FBNH (-7.2%), DANGCEM (-0.4%) and UBA (-3.6%). However, activity level was mixed as volume traded increased by 1.6% to 345.0m units while value traded declined 58.8% to N2.3bn.
The top traded stocks by volume were NEM (189.1m units), UBA (27.2m units) and TRANSCORP (21.7m units) while NEM (N540.1bn), ETI (N383.0bn) and GUARANTY (N350.2bn) were the top traded stocks for the day.
Mixed Performance across Sectors
Performance across sectors was mixed as 2 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the green.
The Oil & Gas index appreciated the most, up 0.5% due to gains in OANDO (+3.9%) and TOTAL (+1.1%), followed by the Banking index (+0.2%), buoyed by price appreciation in ACCESS(+2.2%) and DIAMOND (+6.9%) which offset losses in UBA (-3.6%).
On the flipside, the Industrial Goods index declined the most, down 1.9% as sell offs in DANGCEM (-0.4%) and WAPCO (-5.6%) – currently at a 52-week low of N25.50 – dragged the index.
In the same vein, the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices slid 0.3% and 0.1% on the back of sell pressures on STDINSURE (-9.5%) and UNILEVER (-2.0%) respectively.
Investor Sentiment Softens
Investor sentiment softened today as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) slid to 0.6x from 2.1x recorded yesterday following 17 stocks that advanced relative to 27 decliners.
The gainers’ chart was topped by PORTPAINT (+10.0%), REGALINS (+9.5%) and SKYEBANK (+7.7%) while LIVESTOCK (-10.0%), STDINSURE (-9.5%) and LASACO (-9.1%) depreciated the most. Despite the decline in the broader index, we expect the market to rebound in today’s trading session as investors hunt for bargain opportunities.
Our view is further supported by technical analysis, as the current 14-Day RSI (Relative Strength Index) of the market is 39.0 points which is closer to the oversold region.
