Nigeria’s equities market began the trading week on a slightly negative note as the All Share Index (ASI) declined 0.03 percent to 34,837.67 points.
Consequently, year-to-date loss stood at -8.9 percent while N3.9 billion was wiped off market capitalization which decreased to N12.7 trillion.
Price appreciation in bellwethers – ZENITH (+1.7%), GUARANTY (+1.4%) and DANGCEM (+0.9%) were offset by losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.0%), GUINNESS (-5.3%) and DANGSUGAR (-4.1%), hence the negative performance.
In the same vein, activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 65.8 percent and 68.0 percent to 131.5 million units and N3.1 billion respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were NIGERIAN BREWERIES (19.1m), STANBIC (11.8m) and AIICO (11.2m) while NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N1.8bn), STANBIC (N0.6bn) and ZENITH (N0.1bn) were the top traded stocks by value.
Performance across sectors was mixed, albeit skewed to the positive as 3 of 5 major sectoral indices closed in the green.
The insurance index was the biggest gainer, up 1.9 percent as investors rallied in AIICO (+9.8%) and CONTINSURE (+9.4%).
The banking and industrial goods indices followed suit, rising 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent respectively following buying interest in ZENITH (+1.7%), GUARANTY (+1.4%) and ETERNA (+3.0%).
On the flip side, losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.0%), GUINNESS (-5.3%) and FORTE (-0.8%) dragged the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices 1.6 percent and 0.7 percent lower respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) remained soft at 0.9x as 18 stocks advanced against 19 stocks that declined.
The top performers were in HMARKINS (+10.0%), AIICO (+9.8%) and CONTINSURE (+9.5%) while JAIZ (-10.0%), FLOURMILL (-9.7%) and TRANSCORP (-7.9%) led laggards.Following the day’s performance, analysts at Afrinvest expect market to remain bearish in the near term as sentiments remain weak.