Nigerian Breweries, Seplat, FBNH drag equities market bearish as benchmark index tumbles 0.4%

Nigeria’s equities market’s bearish close Friday was extended in Monday’s trade as bourse’s all-share index shed another 0.4 percent to close at 34,873.07 points.

Consequently, year-to-date gain moderated further to 29.8 percent while market capitalization fell N46.5 billion to settle at N12.0 trillion.

NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%), SEPLAT (-5.0%) and FBNH (-3.4%) were the major drags to market performance.

However, activity level remained mixed as volume traded rose 1.6 percent to 162.7 million units while value traded fell 48.0 percent to N1.5 billion.

Sector performance was mixed as three of five indices closed in the red. The loser’s chart was led by the oil & gas index, which plunged 3.0 percent on account of profit taking in SEPLAT (-8.6%) and sell-offs in OANDO (-5.0%).

The consumer goods index followed with a loss of 1.2 percent as a result of a decline in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.9%) whilst the industrial goods index moderated 0.8 percent on account of WAPCO (-1.9%).

On the gainer’s chart, the banking index led with a 0.9 percent gain on the back of GUARANTY (+2.7%), while the insurance index added 0.2 percent due to upticks in NEM (+2.5%) and LINKASSURE (+1.7%).

Investor sentiment improved Monday as market breadth came in higher at 0.8x, albeit negative (from 0.4x recorded on Friday), on account of 14 advancing stocks against 17 decliners.

The best performers were AIRSERVICE (+4.9%), CADBURY (+4.7%) and CILEASING (+4.2%) while NEIMETH (-8.6%), SEPLAT (-5.0%) and OANDO (-5.0%) were the worst performers.

Analysts are of the opinion that an uptrend in market performance is imminent as investors would begin to source for bargains. They also see opportunities for investors to buy into value stocks that have depreciated recently.

“Given our medium-term positive outlook on the equities market, the continuous downtrend in performance presents opportunities for investors who were unable to partake in the April-led rally; hence we expect to see an uptrend in market performance as investors source for bargains,” analysts at Afrinvest said.