Equities Market Plunged Further as Investors Take Profits
Equities segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) plunged further for third trading session on Wednesday as investors mood swing to bearish side.
At the close of trade, the domestic equities market fell marginally by 4 basis points (bps) to close at 35,029.82 points.
Analysts said this was largely due to sell-offs in FBNH (-0.7%), UBA (-0.6%) and ARDOVA (-8.7%).
Consequently, investors lost ₦6.5 billion as market capitalisation declined to ₦18.3 trillion while year to date return moderated to 30.5%.
Activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 8.0% to 283.1 million units while value traded rose 4.5% to ₦3.4 billion.
The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (40.8 million units), GUARANTY (32.7 million units) and AIICO (30.1 million units).
Meanwhile GUARANTY (₦1.1 billion), ZENITH (₦698.1 million) and DANGCEM (₦308.7 million) led by value.
Afrinvest said performance across sectors was weak as 4 of the 6 indices under its coverage declined while the Industrial Goods and AFR-ICT indices closed flat.
The Insurance index led laggards, down 1.0% due to sell-offs in CORNERSTONE (-3.3%), MANSARD (-0.9%) and AIICO (-0.9%).
Similarly, the Oil & Gas and Banking indices declined 0.4% and 0.1% respectively following price depreciation in ARDOVA (-8.7%), FBNH (-0.7%) and UBA (-0.6%).
Likewise, losses in CHAMPION (-8.2%) dragged the Consumer Goods index 3bps lower.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 0.6x from the 0.8x recorded in the previous session as 13 stocks gained against the 21 that declined.
FTNCOCOA (+8.8%), UNIONDAC (+8.0%) and CHAMS (+4.8%) led the gainers.
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Meanwhile ROYALEX (-8.7%), ARDOVA (-8.7%) and MBENEFIT (-8.3%) led the decliners.
“We expect profit-taking in the next trading session as investor sentiment remains weak”, Afrinvest said.
Equities Market Plunged Further as Investors Take Profits
