Investors lose N106bn as stock losses enter 8th day

The local bourse extended losses from last week into yesterday’s trading session as investors on equities of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) lose N106.9 billion with market capitalization falling to N14.1 trillion at the close of trade.

The All Share Index (ASI) dipped 0.7 per cent - its 8th consecutive daily decline to settle at 39,040.44 points while YTD return further moderated to 2.1 per cent.

Sell pressures in banking stocks - GUARANTY (-2.3 per cent), ZENITH (-2.1 per cent) and FBNH (-4.6 per cent) - were largely responsible for yesterday’s bearish performance.

Activity level softened as volume and value traded declined 24.9 per cent and 44.8 per cent to 222.3 million units and N1.6bn respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were AIICO (40.8m), ACCESS (27.4m) and FBNH (26.5m) while the top traded stocks by value were ACCESS (N292.1m), FBNH (N245.6m) and ZENITH (N238.3m).

The sector performance was bearish as all five indices under coverage closed southwards. The Industrial Goods index led laggards down 2.1 per cent, on the back of selloffs in WAPCO and CAP which outweighed gains in DANGCEM.

Similarly, the Banking and Insurance indices shed 2.0 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively as sell pressures in GUARANTY, ZENITH, WAPIC and LINKASSU dragged both indices.

The Consumer Goods index lost 0.1 per cent as price depreciation in NIGERIAN BREWERIES and DANGFLOUR offset gains in FLOURMILLS and DANGSUGAR while the Oil & Gas index fell 2bps due to losses in 11PLC and OANDO.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth remained flat at 0.3x as 10 stocks advanced against 35 stocks that declined. HMARKINS, ETERNA and IKEJAHOTEL led the gainers today while FCMB, JAPAULOIL and WAPIC declined the most.

Analysts at Afrinvest believe the current bearish sentiment will continue till midweek, however, expect investor’s bargain hunting activities on some oversold Bellwether securities to buoy market performance from Wednesday.