Equities market indices retreat as investors’ dump pricey stocks
There was a pullback in the market after trading session today. Investors decision to dump weighty and highly price stock caused a drag on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (www.nse.com.ng) All share index (ASI).
Just as trading session ended negative yesterday, the bears remained unrelenting as sell-offs in MTNN (-4.0%), GUARANTY (-2.9%) and ACCESS (-2.0%) drove the All-Share Index southwards by 0.9% to 29,110.90 points.
As a result, year to date (YTD) return has moderated to 8.5% while market capitalisation slide by ₦137.9 billion to ₦14.9 trillion.
Activity level declined as volume and value traded fell 3.3% and 4.9% to 242.8 million units and ₦4.6 billion respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH which traded 46.6 million units, UNILEVER 25 million units and GUARANTY 24.3 million units while MTNN (₦1.3 billion), ZENITH (₦980.7 million) and GUARANTY (₦740.2 million) led by value.
Afrinvest revealed that performance across sectors was bearish as 4 of 6 indices under its analysts coverage lost.
The Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices gained, up 0.4% apiece, buoyed by price appreciation in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.9%), FLOURMILL (+5.7%) and OANDO (+2.8%).
On the flip side, the AFR-ICT (-2.3%) index declined the most, due to price depreciation in MTNN (-4.0%).
More so, profit-taking in MANSARD (-6.1%), NEM (-8.3%) and WAPIC (-5.4%) dragged the Insurance index down 2.8%.
Likewise, sustained sell pressures in GUARANTY (-2.9%), ACCESS (-2.8%) and WAPCO (-1.5%) resulted in declines in the Banking (-1.3%) and Industrial Goods (-0.2%) indices.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 0.6x from the 0.4x recorded in the previous trading session as 10 stocks advanced relative to 18 decliners.
The best performers were LASACO (+7.7%), AIICO (+6.3%) and FLOURMILL (+5.7%) while BOCGAS (-9.1%), NEM (-8.3%) and MANSARD (-6.1%) led the laggards.
Analysts at Afrinvest said with the commencement of corporate earnings releases, they believe investor sentiment would be influenced by the corporate performances.
“However, we expect to see more profit-taking activities in the local bourse in the near term”, Afrinvest analysts projected.
Equities market indices retreat as investors’ dump pricey stocks By Ogochi Ndubuisi
