The domestic equities market of the Nigerian Stock Exchange shed N28.0bn from its market capitalisation to close at N11.7trn as a result, and year to date (YTD) loss further fell to -16.2%.
The All Share Index also shed 24 basis points in yesterday’s session to settle at 32,048.18 points due to sell-offs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.8%), UNILEVER (-6.0%) and UBA(-5.1%).
Activity level also weakened, as volume and value traded lower by 34.0% and 38.6% to 157.7m units and N1.8bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (18.9m), FCMB (14.5m) and GUARANTY (N13.1m) while the top traded stocks by value were GUARANTY (N498.9m), PRESCO (N169.4m) and ZENITH(N165.7m).
Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage trended southwards. The Consumer Goods Index depreciated the most, down 0.6%, following sell-offs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.8%) and UNILEVER (-6.0%).
The Industrial and Banking indices trailed, as they shed 0.5% and 0.5% respectively, due to sell pressures, CCNN (-9.4%), WAPCO (-0.6%), UBA (-5.1%), ACCESS (-4.2%) and FBNH (-3.9%).
Losses in PRESTIGE (-8.9%) and NIGERINS (-8.3%) dragged the Insurance index lower by 0.5%. On the flip side, the Oil & Gas index closed as the lone gainer, up 0.8% due to gains in SEPLAT (+2.4%) following a positive 9M:2018 result.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth remained unchanged at 0.7x as 16 stocks appreciated against 24 decliners. UACN (+10.0%),CADBURY (+10.0%) and PRESCO (+9.9%) were the best performing stocks while the worst performing were CCNN (-9.4%%), NNFM (-9.3%) andPRESTIGE (-9.3%).
Analysts at Afrinvest said: “We observed a largely positive performance till the last hour of trading as investor profit taking on large counters wiped off early trading gains. Nonetheless, we opine that bargain hunting would lift performance tomorrow while maintaining our near term bearish outlook.”