Sustained sell-offs in blue chip stocks drag equities downward by 1.97%

 

Investors remained downbeat on the equities market, as the All Share Index (ASI) recorded its fourth consecutive loss of 1.07 percent, the largest since March 15, following continued profit-taking in large cap stocks.
This bearish performance was mostly due to sell offs in Dangote Cement (-0.8 percent), Guaranty Trust Bank (-2.0 percent) and Nigerian Breweries (-0.1 percent). Hence, investors lost N159.4 billion in value as market capitalisation fell to N14.7 trillion. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 51.6 percent to 535.0 million units while value traded dropped 11.7 percent to N3.7 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were Champion Breweries (153.9 million), Skye Bank (104.7 million) and Sterling Bank (41.2 million) while Guaranty Trust Bank (N531.3 million), Champion Breweries (N397.1 million) and Zenith Bank (N396.2 million) were the top traded stocks by value.
However, sector performance was largely bearish as 4 of 5 indices under our coverage closed in the red while one index closed in the green. The Banking index lost the most, down by 3.4 percent due to sell offs in Guaranty Trust Bank (-2.0 percent), ETI (-4.4 percent) and UBA (-2.5 percent) followed by the Industrial Goods index which shed 2.6 percent on the back of price depreciation in Dangote Cement (-0.8 percent) and Lafarge Africa (-4.7 percent). Similarly, the Insurance index declined 0.3 percent, dragged by losses in Lafarge Africa (-3.4 percent) and Mutual Benefit Insurance (-5.4 percent) while the Oil & Gas index slid 3 basis points following losses in Total Nigeria (-0.7 percent). On the flipside, the Consumer Goods index was the lone gainer, inching 0.3 percent higher due to buy interest in Unilever Nigeria (+4.9 percent) and PZ (+4.6 percent).
Meanwhile, investor sentiment measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) waned to 0.6x from 0.7x recorded in the previous session as 18 stocks advanced relative to 29 stocks that declined. GlaxoSmithKline (+10.0 percent), Wema Bank (+9.4 percent) and ETERNA (+5.6 percent) were the best performing stocks while Japaul Oil (-8.5 percent), Mutual Benefit Assurance (-5.4 percent) and Fidson Healthcare (-5.0 percent) depreciated the most.