The equities market sustained its bearish performance in today’s (Wednesday) session as sell pressures in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-9.1%), NESTLE (-2.3%) and DANGSUGAR (-9.3%) dragged the benchmark index 37bps southwards to settle at 27,745.92 points while the YTD return worsened to -11.8%.
Accordingly, investors lost N50.7bn in value as market capitalisation fell to N13.5tn.
A report by Afrinvest Securities, said activity level improved as volume and value traded advanced 62.3% and 85.1% to 251.9m units and N4.1bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (39.1 units), FBNH (34.8m units) and UBA (27.7m units) while MTNN (N725.2m), ZENITH (N718.8m) and DANGCEM (N679.4m) led the top trades by value.
Mixed Sector Performance
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of 6 indices under our coverage appreciated today. The Insurance index gained the most, increasing by 0.9% due to price appreciation in WAPIC(+7.7%), MBENEFIT (+9.1%) and PRESTIGE (+6.7%). The Banking and Industrial Goods indices also gained 0.7% and 0.3% respectively on the back of buying interest in ACCESS (+4.0%),UBA (+3.5%), FBNH (+2.7%) and CCNN (+2.9%). Conversely, losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-9.1%), NESTLE (-2.3%) and DANGSUGAR (-9.3%) dragged the Consumer Goods index down by 3.5%. The Oil & Gas index also lost 2bps due to sell-offs in OANDO (-3.9%) and CONOIL (-2.7%). The AFR-ICT index closed flat for the third consecutive trading session this week.
Investor Sentiment Strenghtens
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strenghtened to 1.0x from 0.6x recorded the previous day as 20 stocks advanced relative to 20 stocks that declined. Top outperforming stocks were JBERGER (+9.9%), FORTE (+9.2%) and MBENEFIT (+9.1%), while UPL (-10.0%), BERGER (-9.5%) and DANGSUGAR (-9.3%) led the decliners. We expect the bearish performance to be sustained till the close of the week as investors’ sentiment towards equities remain weak.
