Marginal loss for investors as fall in oil & gas, banking, consumer goods indices drives Nigeria bourse down

At the close of trade on Tuesday, the Nigerian domestic equities market posted a loss as the All-Share Index fell marginally by 3 basis points (bps) to settle at 25,597.96 points due to price declines in FBNH (-2.0%), SEPLAT (-1.3%) and DANGSUGAR (-1.2%). Consequently, market capitalisation fell to N13.4 trillion as investors lost N4 billion while the 3bps decline pegged negative year to date (YTD) return at 4.6 per cent.

Also, the activity level in the market waned as volume and value traded decreased by 4.6 per cent and 9.3 per cent respectively to 245.1 million units and N3 billion. The most traded stocks by volume was FBNH (51.4m units), GUARANTY (46.3m units) and ZENITH (18.8m units) while GUARANTY (N1.2bn), STANBIC (N630.0m) and ZENITH (N322.4m) led by value.

There was a mixed sector performance albeit negatively skewed as 3 of the 6 indices covered closed southward. The Oil & Gas and Banking indices led laggards, down 1.2 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively following sell-offs in SEPLAT (-1.3%), OANDO (-5.5%), FBNH (-2.0%) and UBA (-0.8%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods index declined by 0.1 per cent due to price depreciation in DANGSUGAR (1.2%).

On the other hand, the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices were the gainers, up 0.4 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively due to price upticks in CORNERSTONE (+6.5%), WAPCO (+3.5%), and CAP (+1.2%). Finally, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.9x from the 1.1x recorded previously as 13 stocks gained against the 15 that lost. The top gainers were IKEJAHOTEL (+9.5%), UAC-PROP (+9.2%) and CORNERSTONE (+6.5%) while NPFMCRFBK (-9.4%), UNIONDAC (-7.4%) and REDSTAREX (-6.1%) lost the most.

Meanwhile, the NSE 30 Index marginally decreased by 0.03 per cent to close at 1,087.04 points as against 1,087.39 points as on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 183.43 million units. Lafarge Africa and FCMB were the key gainers, while FBNH and SEPLAT were the key losers.