Stock market capitalisation nosedive to N10.678 Trn as ASI down 0.47%
For seven consecutive trading days, bears ran down the stock market with investors losing a fortune on daily basis in the period. The domestic equities market posted a bearish performance at the close of trade again yesterday as the All Share Index (ASI) fell 47 basis points (bps) to 28,430.37 points, primarily due to losses in NESTLE (-3.5%), FBNH (-3.3%) and OKOMUOIL (-3.9%).As a result, year to date (YTD) loss dipped to -9.5% while market capitalization declined further by N23.2 billion to N10.678 trillion. Activity level similarly declined as volume and value traded fell 6.8% and 3.4% to 200.1 million units and N2.7 billion respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (33.1 million), ZENITH (27.0 million) and ACCESS (23.0 million) while GUARANTY (N1.0 billion), ZENITH (N537.8 million) and NESTLE (N310.0 million) led by value.
Across sectors, performance was mixed as 3 of 5 indices under Afrinvest analysts’ coverage trended northwards. The Banking index led gainers, advancing 1.3%, due to price appreciation in GUARANTY (+1.9%) and ZENITH (+1.5%). In the same vein, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices closed in the green gaining 70 bps and 2bps respectively following gains in MOBIL (+5.5%), AIICO (+3.0%) and WAPIC (+2.6%).Read Also: Investors’ wealth decline as sell-offs in bellwethers drag index
On the flipside, the Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods indices closed in the red, as they shed 2.8% and 0.6% respectively, due to sell pressures in NESTLE (-10.5%), DANGSUGAR (-1.5) and WAPCO (-2.7%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.3x from 0.4x recorded the previous day as 20 stocks advanced against 16 that declined. The best performers were NEIMETH (+9.1%), COURTVILLE (+8.3%) and THOMASWY (+8.3%) while UPL (-9.7%), ROYALEX (-8.3%) and CHAMS (-8.3%) were the worst-performing stocks.
“Despite the 7-day bearish run which further persisted in yesterday’s trading session, we opine that the market may rebound tomorrow based on the improving investor sentiment observed today”, Afrinvest said.
