Nigeria’s equities market extended losses from two previous trading sessions to Wednesday as the benchmark index fell 1.5 percent to close at 35,629.13 points while year-to-date gain retreated to 32.6 percent.
As a result, stocks lost N185.0 billion in value as market capitalization settled at N12.3 trillion.
The continuous decline in market performance as seen in previous sessions, according to analysts, presents an opportunity for bargain hunters to take advantage of stocks that had declined.
Specifically analysts at Afrinvest anticipate a rebound in the equities market in subsequent trading sessions before the week runs out.
A detailed appraisal of Wednesday performance indicates that losses in large cap stocks such as DANGCEM (-3.8%), GUARANTY (-0.5%), ACCESS (-3.9%) and DANGSUGAR (-4.9%) were chiefly responsible for the bears taking hold of the market.
However, activity level improved as volume and value traded surged 66.1 percent and 93.8 percent to 239.9 million units and N2.9 billion respectively.
Equally, sector performance was largely bearish as all indices closed lower save for the insurance index, which gained 0.3 percent due to upticks in CONTINSURE (+4.5%) and NEM (+1.0%).
The industrial goods index led the losers chart, down 1.8 percent on account price depreciation in DANGCEM (-3.8%), while the banking index followed, shedding 0.8 percent as a result of declines in GUARANTY (-0.5%) and ACCESS (-3.9%).
Similarly, the oil & gas index slid 0.5 percent owing to negative sentiment towards MOBIL (-5.0%), while losses in GUINNESS (-3.6%)
dragged the consumer goods index 0.1 percent lower.
Investor sentiment remained weak as market breadth (advancers/decliners’ ratio) dropped to 0.2x (from 0.5x recorded Tuesday) -seven stocks advanced against 30 that declined.
The best performing stocks Wednesday were CUTIX (+10.0%), MAYBAKER (+4.5%) and CONTINSURE (+4.5%), while NAHCO (-5.0%), FIRSTALUM (-5.0%) and MOBIL (-5.0%) were the worst performers.
The banking sector of the market however saw release of half-year earnings results by FIDELITY, which showed gross earnings and profit after tax (PAT) growing by 22.1 percent and 65.6 percent year-on-year to N85.8 billion and N9.0 billion respectively.
