Nigerian stocks reverse 4-day bullish run as profit taking lowers index 1.1%

Nigerian stocks Wednesday reversed a four-day bullish run to close negative as profit taking in bellwethers drag benchmark index down 1.1 percent.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) closed at 36,612.83 points while YTD loss worsened to 4.3 percent.

Sell-offs in large cap stocks – NESTLE (-5.2%), DANGCEM (-1.3%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.9%) – helped pull the benchmark index lower. Consequently, market capitalisation lost N146.7 billion to settle at N13.3 trillion.

However, activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 2.0 percent to 240.0m units whilst value traded increased 10.9 percent to N5.0 billion.

The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (94.9m), UBA (28.7m) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (15.1m) while ZENITH (N2.2bn), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N1.6bn) and UBA (N271.9m) were the top traded stocks by value.

Performance across sectors was mostly bearish as three of five indices trended southwards. The consumer goods index led decliners, down 2.3 percent, as losses in NESTLE (-5.2%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-1.9%) dragged the index.

Similarly, the banking and industrial goods indices fell 0.7 percent and 0.4 percent respectively, as a result of profit taking in ACCESS (-3.0%), UBA (-2.6%), DANGCEM (-1.3%), CAP (10.0%) and CCNN (-5.3%).

On the other hand, the oil & gas index rose 0.6 percent, following gains in TOTAL (+3.8%) and CONOIL (+6.6%) whilst the Insurance index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 0.9x from 0.7x recorded in the prior session as 21 stocks advanced relative to 24 decliners.

The day’s top gainers were NEIMETH (+10.0%), JAIZBANK (+8.6%) and OKOMUOIL (+8.4%) while CAP (-10.0%), ROYALEX (-10.0%) and INTBREW (-9.7%) were the worst performers.

Banking on improved investors’ sentiment, market analysts say they expect a rebound in subsequent trading sessions as investors hunt for bargain in existing attractive stocks.