N111bn off market cap as sell pressure persists on Nigeria equities market with index down 0.88%

Nigeria’s equities market extended losses from Wednesday as sell pressures in GUARANTY (-4.6%), STANBIC (-4.3%) and UNILEVER (-6.4%) weighed on market performance dragging the All Share Index (ASI) 0.88 percent lower to 34,110.22 points.

As a result, year-to-date losses increased to -10.8 percent while N111 billion was wiped off market capitalization which settled at N12.5 trillion.

In the same vein, activity level fell as volume and value traded slid 17.9 percent and 4.2 percent to 164.5 million units and N2.1 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (23.9m), UBA (15.2m) and SKYE (11.7m) while GUARANTY (N860.2m), STANBIC (N236.2m) and ZENITH (N210.1m) led by value.

Across sectors performance was negative as 3 of 5 indices closed southwards.

The banking and consumer goods indices shed 2.5 percent and 1.1 percent respectively following sell-offs in GUARANTY (-4.6%), ZENITH (-2.1%) UNILEVER (-6.4%) and INTBREW (-3.0%).

Similarly, losses in WAPIC (-10.0%) and AIICO (-5.6%) dragged the insurance index 0.2 percent lower.

On the flip side, the industrial goods and oil & gas indices gained, rising 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent respectively due to price appreciation in DANGCEM (-0.5%), WAPCO (-0.4%) and FORTE (-5.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) softened to 0.6x from 0.8x recorded yesterday as 19 stocks advanced against 31 that declined.

The best performers were AGLEVENT (+10.0%), FIDSON (+9.1%) and SOVRENINS (+8.7%) while WAPIC (-10.0%), ETERNA (-9.4%) and LAWUNION (-9.1%) were the worst performers for the day.

Due to the absence of positive drivers, equities market analysts at Afrinvest maintain a bearish outlook for the market in the near term.