Investors lose N120bn as equities continue free fall

Trading on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) extended losses to fifth consecutive trading session as market capitalisation shed N120.6bn to settle at N11.7tn.

The All Share Index (ASI) shed 1.0% to settle at 31,313.36 points following losses recorded in GUARANTY (-4.8%), INTBREW (-9.9%) and DANGCEM (-0.5%), while YTD loss stood at -0.4%.

However, activity level improved as volume and value traded advanced by 71.0% and 22.7% to 219.5m units and N2.5bn respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were FBNH (60.1m units), ZENITH (46.5m units) and DIAMOND (14.5m units) while ZENITH (N1.1bn), FBNH (N493.1m) and DANGCEM (N437.4m) were the top traded stocks by value.

Performance across sectors remained bearish as 4 of 5 indices trended southwards.

The Banking index led decliners for the second consecutive trading session, down 2.3% on account of sell offs in GUARANTY (-4.8%) and ZENITH (-0.9%).

The Consumer Goods and Insurance indices closely followed, down 1.3% and 0.5% respectively following losses in INTBREW (-9.9%), DANGSUGAR (-3.8%), LINKASSURE (-7.9%) andWAPIC (-2.5%).

Also, the Oil & Gas index lost 0.4% on the back of price depreciation inMOBIL (-3.0%). On the flip side, the Industrial Goods index gained 0.2% following bargain hunting in WAPCO (+4.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.3x from 0.7x recorded in the previous trading session as 8 stocks advanced against 29 decliners. LAWUNION (+7.7%), UACPROP (+7.1%) and UCAP (+4.1%) led the top traded stocks while INTBREW (-9.9%), UPDC (-9.2%) and AGLEVENT (-8.8%) led laggards.

Analysts have said despite the consecutive negative performance recorded, they expect investor bargain hunting to drive market performance over the near term.