Nigerian stocks index fell 48 basis points Thursday to close 41,107.81 points as investors claw back gains in bellwethers, including – DANGCEM (-1.1%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.4%).
The day’s performance momentarily halted three days of consecutive positive trade which was driven by interest in value stocks, as well as positive reaction to corporate earnings.
Year-to-date gain consequently declined to 7.5 percent just as total stocks value, measured as market capitalization lost N71.8 billion to settle at N14.9 trillion.
However, activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 16.0 percent to 320.4 million units while value traded was down 30.9 percent to N4.8 billion. Top traded stocks by volume were UBA (79.9m), ACCESS (57.0m) and ETRANZACT (20.3m) while UBA (N935.2m), ACCESS (N644.4m) and ZENITH (N488.3m) emerged the top traded stocks by value.
Performance across sectors under our coverage was mixed as two of five indices closed in the green. The banking and insurance indices were up 0.8 percent and 0.2 percent respectively on account of bargain hunting in ETI (+3.5%), GUARANTY (+0.6%), UBN (+3.1%) and CONTISURE (+4.6%).
On the flipside, the consumer goods index declined 1.5 percent, due to selloffs in INTERBREW (-8.3%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.4%) and UNILEVER (-4.4%), while the oil & gas index trailed, shedding 0.8 percent as investors exited positions in OANDO (-4.9%) and FORTE (-4.9%).
Similarly, the industrial goods index lost 0.2 percent following profit taking in DANGCEM (-1.1%).
Investor sentiment measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.0x from 1.5x as 25 stocks advanced against 25 stocks that declined.
The top performing stocks were UNITY (+9.5%), CCNN (+7.6%) and JAIZ (+7.1%) while the leading laggards were INTERBREW (-8.3%), DANGSUGAR (-5.0%) and DANGFLOUR (-5.0%).
Despite the day’s bearish performance, analysts are expecting the market to close the week in the green as investors continue to seek for bargain hunting.
