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

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.”