Sell-Offs in pricey stocks drag market performance as investors lose ₦161.3bn
At the close of trade today, sell pressures in DANGCEM (-3.3%), BUACEMENT (-5.3%) and NESTLE (-6.7%) weighed on the All-Share Index, depreciating 136 basis points to close at 22,470.79 points.
Volume traded today increased by 8.19% to close at 201 475 387 while the total value of stock traded increased by 81.25% to close at 3.36 billion in 3,381 deals.
Consequently, market capitalisation shed ₦161.3 billion to settle at ₦11.7 trillion while year to date loss worsened to -16.3%.
Activity level rose as volume and value traded advanced 8.2% and 81.3% respectively to 201.5m units and ₦3.4 billion.
The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (46.8m units), FBNH (32.6m units) and ZENITH (19.4m units) while NESTLE (₦1.6bn), DANGCEM (₦297.4m) and ACCESS (₦297.3m) led by value.
Sector performance was bearish as 4 of 6 indices under analysts at Afrinvest coverage declined save the Banking index which emerged as the lone gainer and the AFR-ICT index which closed flat.
The Industrial (-3.8%) and Consumer Goods (-3.3%) indices lost the most, owing to sell-offs in BUACEMENT (-5.3%), DANGCEM (-3.3%) and NESTLE (-6.7%) respectively.
The Oil & Gas (-0.2%) and Insurance (-0.1%) indices trailed, due to price declines in ARDOVA (-4.5%) and LINKASSURE (-8.8%) respectively.
On the flip side, gains in GUARANTY (+1.6%), ZENITH (+1.1%) and ACCESS (+1.6%) buoyed a slight increase in the Banking index (0.7%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 1.2x from the 6.3x recorded in the previous session as 17 stocks advanced against 14 decliners.
The best performing stocks were JAIZBANK (+10.0%), CADBURY (+9.5%) and WEMA (+9.1%) while ETI (-10.0%), UACN (-10.0%) and LINKASSURE (-8.6%) lost the most.
“In line with current events shaping economic and business activities, we also foresee the Q1:2020 corporate earnings release to partly influence investor sentiment in the near term”, Afrinvest said.
Sell-Offs in pricey stocks drag market performance as investors lose ₦161.3bn
