Nigerian equities market posts 5th consecutive negative performance as index falls 0.48%

The Nigerian equities market posted its fifth consecutive negative performance Tuesday when the All-Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Stock Exchange closed 0.48 percent lower following sell-offs in a number of stocks.

There were sell-offs in GUARANTY, which posted -5.7%, NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.9%) and DANGSUGAR (-10.0%). The negative performance of those stocks were enough to neutralized late bargain hunting in NESTLE, which had seen it gain 10 percent.

The All Share Index (ASI) settled at 33,449.17 points, increasing year-to-date loss to -12.5 percent, while N59.3 billion was wiped off market capitalization as it fell to N12.2 trillion.

According to equities market analysts Tuesday’s session saw higher sell pressures on major bellwethers, although there was a rally towards the end of trading that failed to make much of an impact.

Activity level however strengthened as volume and value traded advanced 9.5 percent and 17.7 percent to 150.7 million units and N1.6 billion respectively.

The top traded equities by volume were GUARANTY (17.5 million units), UBA (15.6 million units) and DIAMOND (13.8 million units) while top traded equities by value were GUARANTY (N562.8 m), NESTLE (N250.7m) and ZENITH (N236.0m).

The day’s bearish performance was led by the banking sector index which recorded the highest decline due to continuous selloffs in GUARANTY (-5.8%), ZENITH (-2.9%) and UBA (-4.5%). The index closed 3.0 percent lower.

Similarly, the insurance and oil & gas indices lost 0. percent and 0.8 percent respectively on the back of losses in CONTINSURE (-4.7%), CORNERSTONE (-7.4%), FORTE (-5.0%) and ETERNA (-3.2%) while sustained profit taking in CUTIX dragged the industrial foods index marginally by one basis point.

On the flip side, the consumer goods index rallied by 1.6 percent following buy interest in NESTLE (+10.0%) and DANGFLOUR (+7.7%) which offset price depreciations in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.9%) and DANGSUGAR (-10.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.5x from 0.6x recorded on Monday as 14 stocks advanced against 29 stocks that declined.

The best performing stocks were LAWUNION (+10.0%), NESTLE (+9.6%) and REGALINS (+9.5%) while DANGSUGAR (-10.0%), NAHCO (-10.0%) and UNIVINSURE (-9.1%) were the worst performers.

Against the prevailing bearish sentiments in the market, Afrinvest analyst maintain a near-term negative outlook for the market.