Investor sentiments on Nigerian stocks Wednesday remained bearish as sell pressure in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.8%), FBNH (-2.7%) and TRANSCOHOT (-9.6%) pulled the All Share Index (ASI) 0.1 percent lower to 32,382.58 points worsening the year-to-date loss to -15.3 percent.
The market had closed 0.08 percent lower Tuesday on account of sell pressure in consumer good counters.
Wednesday’s performance consequently led to a N12.8 trillion loss in market capitalization, which closed the day at N11.8 trillion. Activity level was mixed as volume traded declined 61.5 percent to 134.5 million units while value traded improved 32.2 percent to close at N1.9 billion.
 Top traded stocks by volume were FCMB (18.3m), FIDELITY (17.2m), and FBNH (15.8m) while top traded stocks by value were DANGCEM (N500.2m), GUARANTY (N444.7m) and NESTLE (N203.5m).
Sector performance was however bullish as 3 of 5 major sectors closed in green.
The insurance index led gainers up 0.8 percent as buy interest in CONTINSURE (+7.2%) and MBENEFIT (+7.7%) drove the index.
Similarly, the industrial goods and banking indices trailed, gaining 0.3 percent and 3 basis points respectively driven by investor positioning in CAP (+10.0%), FIDELITY (+6.1%) and ZENITH (+0.5%).
On the flipside, the consumer goods and oil & gas indices lost 9 basis points and 2 basis points respectively, owing to sell-offs in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.8%) and HONYFLOUR (-2.1%) neutralizing gains in NESTLE (+2.6%) while losses in MOBIL (-0.1%) dragged the oil & gas index by 2 basis points.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.4x from 1.0x recorded on Tuesday as 27 stocks advanced against 19 decliners. Best performing stocks today were CAP (+10.0%), MBENEFIT (+7.7%) and CONTINSURE (+7.2%) while MCNICHOLS (-9.7%), TRANSCOHOT (-9.6%) and LAWUNION (-8.8%) led laggards.
