Stock market maintains negative trend as ASI down by 0.26%

 

The local bourse maintained a negative close for the second consecutive trading day as the All Share Index (ASI) slid 26bps to 40,749.86 points while year to date return moderated return to 6.6 percent. Consequently, investors lost N38.2 billion in value as market capitalisation decreased to N14.7 trillion. The bearish performance can be attributed to sell pressures in Zenith Bank (-8.2 percent), ETI (-3.8 percent) and Dangote Flour (-9.5 percent). Contrary to market performance, activity level improved as volume and value traded trended 10.0 percent and 7.9 percent higher to 401.4 million units and N6.8 billion respectively. FBN Holdings (70.8 million), Zenith Bank (61.2 million) and Fidelity Bank (43.7 million) were the most active stocks by volume while Zenith Bank (N1.7 billion), Nestle Nigeria (N1.5 billion), and Guaranty Trust Bank (N992.3 million) led the top traded stocks by value.
Sector performance was mixed as 2 of 5 indices under our coverage closed positive. The Industrial Goods index grew 0.6 percent on account of gains in Lafarge Africa (+1.3 percent) while the Oil & Gas index closed in the green, up 0.1 percent due to uptick in Forte Oil (+2.7 percent). On the flip side, the Banking index led the losers, down 0.9 percent as investors booked profit in Zenith Bank (-8.2 percent) and ETI (-3.8 percent). The Insurance index trailed losing 0.6 percent, as NEM Insurance (-4.9 percent) and Lafarge Africa (-7.0 percent) recorded losses. Similarly, price depreciation in Dangote Flour (-9.5 percent) and NASCON (-2.3 percent) dragged the Consumer Goods index 0.3 percent lower.
Investor sentiment measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened, albeit still soft to 0.7x from 0.3x recorded the previous day as 18 stocks advanced against 27 losers. The top performers for today were LASACO (+5.9 percent), Fidelity Bank (+5.8 percent) and Access Bank (+4.9 percent) while the laggards were led by Dangote Flour (-9.5 percent), Multiverse (-9.1 percent) and Sovereign Insurance (-9.1 percent).