Losses in large caps pull down Nigerian equities index 0.52% as world stocks trade higher

The Nigerian equities market closed Tuesday negative as benchmark index shed 0.52 percent to settle at 36,600.07 points. This is just as major world indexes traded north.

Accordingly, the Nigerian market year-to-date gain retreated to 36.2 percent from 36.9 percent previously.

Market performance on the day could be largely attributed to losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.3%), ZENITH (-3.0%), and GUARANTY (-1.4%).

As a result, market capitalization decreased by N67.0 billion to N12.7 trillion. Nonetheless, activity level improved as volume and value traded inched 23.6 percent and 34.3 percent higher to 258.0 million units and N3.3 billion respectively.

Sector performance was broadly negative as three of five major indices closed in the red. The banking index led losers, down 1.2 percent as investors booked profit in ZENITH (-3.0%) and GUARANTY (-1.4%).

The oil & gas index trailed, down 0.9 percent on the back of price depreciation in FORTE (-8.9%). Similarly, losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-3.3%) and FLOURMILL (-5.9%) dragged the Consumer index 0.7 percent lower. The insurance and industrial goods indices however closed the day flat.

Market breadth weakened to 0.9x from 1.2x recorded the previous day as 18 stocks advanced against 21 stocks that declined.

The best performing stocks were CHAMPION (+9.1%), LINKASSURE (+5.2%) and CUSTODYINS (+4.8%), while FORTE (-8.9%), CAVERTON (-5.3%) and FLOURMILL (-5.0%) were the worst performing stocks.

“Although we expect year-end rebalancing of by portfolio managers to boost performance in December, market will likely continue to trade sideways in the interim due to absence of fundamental drivers of sentiment post-earnings season,” said analysts at Afrinvest.

At the global stage, U.S. stocks rose Tuesday as a rally in tech lifted the broader market. Investors also cheered strong quarterly results from top companies in corporate America.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose nearly one percent to hit an all-time intraday high. Large-cap tech stocks like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet all traded higher, along with biotechnology stocks.

The S&P 500 gained 0.7 percent and also reached an all-time high, with information technology as the best-performing sector. The Technology Select Sector exchange-traded fund (XLK, which tracks the S&P 500 tech sector, rose 1 percent to trade at levels not seen since 2000.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 150 points, with Microsoft and Apple leading advancers on the 30-stock index.

In Europe, the pan-European STOXX 600 was up by 0.55 percent in early afternoon deals, with most sectors edging into positive territory.

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Autos led the gains when it came to sector performance on Tuesday, boosted by earnings. Volkswagen rose some 4.5 percent on a higher mid-term outlook for group profit and sales. Porsche, which is owned by Volkswagen, consequently rose over 3 percent, while other German car companies also pushed higher.

Asia markets equally traded mostly higher on the day, following gains in U.S. equities overnight amid strong economic data. This will be a short week for the U.S. stock market, which is set to be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

In Australia, the ASX 200 closed up 17.84 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,963.52, with the heavily-weighted financial sector up 0.16 percent and the country’s so-called Big Four banks finished mixed.

Shares of ANZ closed up 0.17 percent, Commonwealth Bank slipped 0.04 percent, Westpac up by 0.25 percent and the National Australia Bank closed flat.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 154.72 points, or 0.7 percent, to 22,416.48 and the Topix index gained 11.48 points, or 0.65 percent, to 1,771.13. In South Korea, the Kospi closed up 3.03 points, or 0.12 percent, at 2,530.7.

Chinese mainland markets also ended higher. The Shanghai composite rose 18.68 points, or 0.55 percent, to 3,411.08. The Shenzhen composite added 15.51 points, or 0.78 percent, to 1,987.45.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index added 1.22 percent at 3:12 p.m. HK/SIN.