Equity market close on a bearish trend, sheds 0.04%
Kayode Ogunwale

 

The equity market on Wednesday closed in a bearish position, posting a dip of 0.04 percent.
Profit taking in Seplat Petroleum Development Company (-3.3 percent), International Breweries (-2.1 percent) and UBN (-4.8 percent) dragged the performance of the All Share Index today to close at 40,772.26 points while year to date return fell to 6.6 percent. Resultantly, investors wealth reduced by N5.9 billion as market capitalization depreciated to N14.7 trillion. Similarly, activity level dipped as volume and value traded decreased by 85.6 percent and 60.4 percent to 230.2 million units and N4.3 billion respectively. Top traded stocks by volume were Guaranty Trust Bank (67.4 million), Fidelity Bank (14.9 million) and FBN Holdings (14.7 million) while top traded stocks by value were Guaranty Trust Bank (N3.0 billion), Zenith Bank (N245.6 million) and FBN Holdings (N182.7 million).
Performance across sectors was largely bearish as 2 indices under our coverage closed in the green while 3 closed red. The Banking and Insurance indices were the only gainers today appreciating 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent due to price gains in ETI (+2.6 percent), Guaranty Trust Bank (+0.6 percent) and Custodian Alliance Insurance (+0.8 percent). On the flip-side, the Oil & Gas index led losers, down 1.7 percent on the back of profit taking in SEPLAT (-3.3 percent). The Industrial and Consumer Goods indices followed, falling 1.0 percent and 0.4 percent respectively on account of sell-offs in Lafarge Africa (-2.0 percent), International Breweries (-2.1 percent) and Nigerian Breweries (-0.7 percent).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.3x from 1.9x recorded yesterday as 24 stocks advanced while 18 stocks declined. Jaiz Bank (+10.0 percent), Oando (+9.7 percent) and Skye Bank (+5.2 percent) were today’s top performers while Union Bank of Nigeria (-4.8 percent), Sovereigns Insurance (-4.3 percent) and Hallmarks Insurance (-3.6 percent) led laggards.