Yesterday, profit taking in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.2%), UBN (-9.5%) and OKOMUOIL (-9.0%) dragged the benchmark index 0.3% lower to close at 32,451.27 points.
As a result, market capitalisation declined by N32.5bn to N11.8tn while YTD loss worsened to -15.1%. Similarly, activity level weakened as volume and value traded fell 42.4% and 24.9% to 190.5m units and N3.3bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (67.0m units), TRANSCORP (15.8m units) and UBA (10.6m units) while GUARANTY (N2.3bn), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N139.1m) and ZENITH (N123.9m) were the top traded stocks by value.
Banking Index Advances the Most
Performance across sectors was largely bearish today as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage declined. The Banking and Insurance indices led gainers, up 0.2% and 0.1% respectively following investors continuous buy interest in GUARANTY (+1.6%), ZENITH (+1.0%), UBA(+1.3%), NIGERINS (+9.7%), AIICO (+3.7%) and LASACO (+6.5%). On the flip side, the Oil & Gas index declined 0.8%, following sell-offs in FORTE (-6.7%) while the Industrial and Consumer Goods indices lost 0.7% and 0.6% respectively on the back of price depreciation in WAPCO (-2.1%), CAP (-4.1%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.2%) and GUINNESS (-2.1%).
Investor Sentiment Weakens
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.6x from 1.5x recorded last Friday as 13 stocks appreciated compared to 23 stocks that depreciated. The best performers were NIGERINS (+9.7%), LASACO (+6.5%) and UNILEVER (+4.7%) while LIVESTOCK (-9.5%), UBN (-9.5%) and LAWUNION (-9.1%) declined the most. We expect the bearish run to persist in the near term as sell-offs persists.
