Sell-offs in Banking Stocks Plunged Market Performance
The domestic equities market closed negative at Thursday trading session as the benchmark index declined by 0.5% to 34,643.65 points, following sell pressures.
The profit-takings happened following sell-offs in GUARANTY (-3.2%), STANBIC (-4.1%) and ZENITH (-2.4%).
Consequently, investors lost ₦91.1bn as market capitalisation fell to ₦18.1 trillion while year-to-date return moderated to 29.1%.
Activity level declined as volume and value traded fell by 44.8% and 57.8% to 364.9m units and ₦3.5bn respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were TRANSCORP (50.7m units), FBNH (38.6m units) and ACCESS (25.9m units).
Meanwhile ZENITH (₦535.7m), STANBIC (₦519.3m) and FBNH (₦292.4m) led by value.
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of the 6 indicators under Afrinvest coverage closed in the green.
However, the AFR-ICT and Oil & Gas indices were unchanged.
The Insurance, Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods indices gained, up 1.5%, 0.4% and 0.3% respectively, due to price appreciation in MANSARD (+3.1%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+7.4%) and WAPCO (+9.6%).
However, sell-offs in GUARANTY (-3.2%) and ZENITH (-2.4%) drove the Banking index lower by 2.7%.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth fell to 0.6x from the 4.8x recorded previously as 19 stocks gained against the 28 that declined.
Read Also: Money Market Rates Fall as Inflow from Matured OMO Bills Lifts Liquidity
BOCGAS (+9.9%), ETERNA (+9.9%) and REDSTAREX (+9.8%) led the top gainers while PRESCO (-10.0%), FCMB (-9.9%) and LINKASSURE (-9.1%) led the decliners.
“We expect the market to close negative this week on sustained profit-taking”, Afrinvest said.
Sell-offs in Banking Stocks Plunged Market Performance
