Trading activities on the Nigerian equities market ended Wednesday on a negative note as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index declined further by 0.45 percent to 37,253.25 points, amidst continued sell pressure on value stocks.
Both year-to-date and month-to-date returns moderated to -2.59 percent and -2.68 percent respectively as market capitalization dropped N60.8 billion to close at N13.495 trillion.
The persistent sell pressures in market bellwethers –WAPCO (-5.17%), GUARANTY (-0.12%), and DANGCEM (-0.88%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.0%) influenced the direction of trading.
The Industrial Goods (-2.34%) index posted the largest loss among major sectoral indices, as investors sold off WAPCO (-5.17%) and DANGCEM (-0.88%) shares. The insurance (-0.96%) and consumer goods (-0.46%) indices also closed negative, owing to sell pressure in the shares of SOVRENINS (-8.33%) and FLOURMILL (-0.81%) respectively. Gains resurfaced in the oil & gas (+1.73%) and banking (+0.01%) indices, following interest in MOBIL (+9.39%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.83%) stocks, respectively.
Activity level remained strong in spite of the bearish performance as total volume of trades exchanged in 3,526 deals increased by 34.65 percent to 287.09 million units, valued at N3.75 billion, a marginal decline of 0.41 percent as against Tuesday’s N3.8 billion.
Market breadth remained negative for the fourth consecutive session, with 25 losers and 15 gainers, led by JBERGER (-10.00%) and CUSTODIAN (+10.00%).
“We guide investors to trade cautiously in the short to medium term, as sideways trading is likely to persist, in the absence of a positive one-off catalyst. However, still-positive macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of gains in the long term,” said analysts at Cordros capital in an investment note on Wednesday.
