Daily Trust

Local bourse losses N107bn to extend negative run to 4th consecutiv­e trading session

- From Sunday Michael Ogwu, Lagos

The equities market opened the week on a negative note with market capitalisa­tion declining N107.3bn to settle at N11.8tn.

The All Share Index shed 0.9% to settle at 31,636.66 points while YTD return moderated to 0.7%.

Selloffsin­stocks-ZENITH(-8.8%), NESTLE (-2.0%) and STERLING (-8.5%) were the major drags to yesterday’s performanc­e.

However, activity level was mixed as volume traded shed 45.0% to 128.3m units while value traded rose by 5.1% to N2.4bn. FBNH (34.1m units), ZENITH (21.3m units) and UBA (17.5m units) were the top trades by volume while NESTLE (N720.9m), ZENITH(N484.4m) and DANGCEM (N280.1m) led the top trades by value.

Performanc­e across sectors was bearish as all indices under our coverage save for the Oil & Gas index closed in the red.

The Banking and Consumer Goods indices led decliners shedding 2.9% and 0.7% respective­ly following sell offs in ZENITH (-8.8%), STERLING (-8.5%),NESTLE (-2.0%) and INTBREW (-1.1%).

The Insurance index trailed, down 0.5% on the back of losses in CORNERST (-8.7%) and WAPIC (-4.8%) while the Industrial Goods index declined by 0.4% following sell offs in WAPCO (-3.5%). On the flip side, the Oil & Gas index marginally gained 1bp following buy interest in MOBIL (+0.1%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth improved to 0.7x from 0.3x recorded last Friday as 14 stocks advanced against 19 decliners.

Top performers were CADBURY (+10.0%), MBENEFIT (+8.7%) and NASCON (+8.5%) while CORNERST (-8.7%), STERLING (-8.5%) and ABBEYBDS (-8.2%) led laggards.

Analysts at Afrinvest said: “Despite the bearish performanc­e, we expect bargain hunting in fundamenta­lly sound stocks and investor positionin­g ahead of earnings results to drive market performanc­e during the week.”

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Nigeria