Nigeria’s equities market retreats, as ASI dips 0.82%

The first trading day of the week at Nigeria’s equities market ended on a negative note with depreciation recorded across all major sectors, dragging the All Share Index (ASI) 0.82 percent down as investors began taking profit.

The consumer goods index declined the most, down 2.3 percent following sell pressures in Nestle (-4.1%), Nigerian Breweries (-2.5%) and UACN (-7.0%). The oil & gas indices trailed, shedding 1.2 percent due to losses in Mobil (-8.5%) and Oando (-2.9%). In the same vein the insurance and banking indices declined 0.7 percent and 0.4 percent respectively on the back of profit taking in Cornerstone insurance (-9.1%), Mutual Benefit (-8.7%), Zenith Bank (-2.1%), Stanbic IBTC Banj (-1.1%) and Guaranty Trust Bank (-0.4%). The industrial goods index also lost 0.2 percent as Lafarge WAPCO (-1.6%) recorded price declines.

The slightly bullish performance recorded  previous Friday was thus reversed as the All Share Index closed 0.82 percent down to settle at 30,614.73 points. Market capitalisation declined by N67.1 billion to N11.2 trillion while year-to-date loss worsened to -19.9 percent.

However, activity level was mixed as volume traded ebbed lower by 8.1 percent to 164.6m units while value traded improved by 7.1 percent to N1.7bn. The most active stocks by volume were led by Diamond Bank (44.9m units) FBN Holdings (28.1m units) Sterling Bank (15.4m units) while Guaranty Trust Bank (N276.7m), FBN Holdings (N214.2m) and Nigerian Breweries (N211.3m) were the top stocks by value traded.

Investor sentiment weakened, as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) decreased to 0.6x from 0.8x recorded the previous Friday consequent on 14 stocks advancing relative to 25 that declined.

The best performing stocks Monday were Transnational Express (+8.5%), Forte Oil (+6.4%) and Vitafoam (+5.5%) while Livestock Feeds (-9.6%), Cornerstone Insurance (-9.1%) and Mutual Benefit (-8.7%) were the least performing stocks.

Analysts at Afrinvest who predicted the day’s profit taking are however envisaging