Nigerian stocks dip 0.62% on sustained sell pressure in bellwethers

Nigerian stocks closed negative Wednesday as sustained sell pressure in bellwethers continued for the 8th consecutive trading session. The benchmark index, the NSEASI, fell 62bps to 35,074.82 points while year-to-date (YTD) return contracted further to -8.3 percent.

As a result, market capitalization decreased further by N77.9 billion to N12.8 trillion.

The day’s bearish performance was due largely to sustained sell pressures in NESTLE (-3.9%), GUARANTY (-1.4%) and ZENITH (-2.1%).

However, activity level improved as volume and value traded rose 27.4 percent and 80.1 percent to 209.5 million units and N2.9 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were UBA (28.3m), ZENITH (22.4m) and FCMB (21.0m) while GUARANTY (N785.4m), ZENITH (N518.4m) and UBA (N255.0m) were the top traded stocks by value.

Across sectors, performance was equally bearish as four of five main indices closed southwards. The consumer goods index led the losers’ chart, down 1.5 percent due to sell-offs in NESTLE (-3.9%) and DANGFLOUR (-5.0%).

The banking and oil & gas indices trailed, shedding 1.0 percent and 0.8 percent respectively following losses in GUARANTY (-1.4%), ZENITH (-2.1%), FORTE (-1.9%) and ETERNA (-3.9%). Similarly, the industrial goods index closed in the red albeit flattish, down 3bps. The insurance index was the lone gainer, rising marginally by 4bps as CUSTODIAN (+0.2%) recorded gains.

Investor sentiment, measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), stayed weak at 0.4x as 12 stocks advanced against 29 that declined. The best performing stocks were LINKASSURE (+9.7%), UNIONDAC (+3.7%) and FBNH (+3.1%) while UACPROP (-10.0%), BERGER (-9.7%) and LEARNAFRCA (-9.4%) were the worst performers.

Despite the bears’ charge at the market, analysts are still optimistic of a marginal rebound in subsequent sessions as they expect investors to take position in bellwethers with attractive entry prices.