Stock market investors’ fortune decline N58.9 billion
The bearish streak on the floor of Nigerian Stock Exchange continued as market indicators went south again.
At the end of trading on Monday, the local bourse posted a bearish performance as sell-offs in SEPLAT (-6.9%), NESTLE (-2.0%) and STANBIC (-2.5%) dragged the All Share Index (ASI) lower by 0.5% to 26,866.41 points.
Meanwhile, year to date, YTD, loss worsened to -14.5% while market capitalization declined by N58.9 billion to N13.1 trillion.
However, activity level rose as volume and value traded advanced by 9.2% and 45.6% to 151.7 million units and N1.5 billion respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were FCMB (55.7 million units), TRANSCORP (17.2 million units) and FBNH (14.4 million units) while NESTLE (N486.1 million), DANGCEM (N270.0million) and GUARANTY (N172.1 million) led by value.
Sector performance was bearish as only the Industrial Goods index (+0.2%) ended in the green territory owing to price appreciation in CCNN (+2.7%) and CUTIX (+2.6%).
The Oil & Gas index led the laggards, declining 4.2% due to price depreciation in SEPLAT (-6.9%) and OANDO (-2.7%).
Trailing, the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices lost 1.2% and 0.2% respectively following sell pressures in NESTLE (-2.0%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.7%) and MANSARD (-1.8%).
Losses in STANBIC (-2.5%) and ACCESS (-1.4%) dragged the Banking index down by 0.1%. Finally, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) inched up to 1.1 xs from 0.6x recorded previously as 17 tickers gained against 16 losers.
The top gainers were COURTVILLE (+10.0%), AFRIPRUD (+9.9%) and ABCTRANS (+8.8%) while CORNEST (-10.0%), SEPLAT (-6.8%) and CADBURY (-5.7%) were the top losers.
“We expect the market to remain bearish as the broader investor sentiment remains weak”, Afrinvest said.
