Equities market flipped back into red region as ASI dips by 0.12%

 

Proceedings turned bearish in the equities market on Wednesday as All Share Index (ASI) dipped by 0.12 percent to 40,772.26 points
Consequently, investors lost N17.2 billion in value as market capitalization worsened to N14.7 trillion. Today’s bearish performance was attributable to sell offs in Dangote Cement (-1.2 percent), FBN Holdings (-9.0 percent) and Zenith Bank (-1.4 percent). However, ex-Dangote Cement the market would have closed positive (+32bps). Despite the negative performance, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 42.1 percent and 43.0 percent to 350.4 million units and N4.6 billion respectively. FBN Holdings (80.1 million), UBA (60.0 million) and Fidelity Bank (40.6 million) were the most traded stocks by volume while FBN Holdings (N1.0 billion), UBA (N684.5 million) and Flour Mills of Nigeria (N538.2 million) were the top traded stocks by value.
Performance across sectors was largely bullish as 3 of 5 indices under our coverage trended upwards. The Oil & Gas index appreciated the most, up 2.3 percent as a result of buying interest in Seplat Petroleum Development Company (+3.8 percent) and Forte Oil (+10.2 percent). The Consumer Goods index trailed, closing 1.7 percent higher, due to bargain hunting in Nestle Nigeria (+5.0 percent) while gains in Guaranty Trust Bank (+0.6 percent) and UBA (+1.8 percent) pushed the Banking index up 0.2 percent). On the flip side, the Industrial Goods and Insurances indices lost 1.4 percent and 0.8 percent respectively following price depreciation in Dangote Cement (-1.2 percent), Lafarge Africa (-2.0 percent) and Continental Reinsurance (-4.4 percent).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 1.1x from 1.0x recorded in the preceding session as 24 stocks advanced against 22 decliners. Today’s top performers were FORTE (+10.2 percent), Presco (+5.0 percent) and Nestle Nigeria (+5.0 percent) while FBN Holdings (-9.0 percent), Skye Bank (-5.7 percent) and Oando (-4.9 percent) were the worst performing stocks.