- Price drop in GTB, Zenith, Union Bank pushes banking index down 3.4%
- Market capitalisation fell by N44.3bn to N13.3trn
Charles Abuede
Nigeria’s All Share Index (NASI) gave up 33 basis points in Tuesday trading on the local bourse following a raft of I declines in banking sector stocks even as broad based sell-offs continued despite investors maintaining their profit-taking dealings in fundamentally sound stocks.
The All-Share Index settled at 25,497.32 points following sell-off pressures in banking stocks with Guaranty Trust Bank posting -6.2%; Zenith Bank returning -2.3% and Union Bank of Nigeria coming home at -3.9%.
Accordingly, market capitalisation fell by N44.3 billion to N13.3 trillion while year-to-date (YTD) loss worsened to -5.0 per cent.
Similarly, activity level varied as volume traded declined 0.8 per cent to 252 million units while the value traded advanced 0.8 per cent to N2 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were Custodian Insurance, which saw 40.1 million units change hands; FBN Holdings, with 28.2 million units traded; and Zenith Bank, with 26 million units sold; while Zenith Bank, with N444.8 million; Guaranty Trust Bank, with N206.6 million and Custodian Insurance, with N192.7 million, led the day’s activities in terms of value.
Bullish sector performance
On the trading floor, market performance was bullish across sectors as five out of six indicators gained. The banking index closed south by 3.4 per cent, dragged down by price declines in GTBank (-6.2%); Zenith Bank (-2.3%); and Union Bank (-3.9%). On the other hand, the AFR-ICT and consumer goods indices closed higher by 0.4 per cent apiece due to buying interest in MTN Nigeria (+0.8%), Nigeria Breweries (+2.5%) and Honeywell Flour (+4.4%).
In the same vein, the insurance and oil & gas indices advanced 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively, buoyed by gains in Wapic Insurance (+3.0%) and Oando (+1bps). Price appreciation in CAP (+2.7%) lifted the industrial goods index by 1 basis point.
Investor sentiment weakens
Meanwhile, investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.5x from the 1.1x recorded previously as 10 stocks gained against the 19 that declined. The top gainers were HONYFLOUR (+4.4%), TRANSCORP (+3.4%) and WAPIC (+3.0%) while ARBICO (-9.6%), ROYALEX (-9.1%) and GUARANTY (-6.2%) lost the most.
