Stock market in decline, falls by 0.14% as investors begin profit taking

Nigeria’s stock market reversed a two-day positive performance as investors began taking profit in some key stocks.

The All Share Index declined by 0.14 percent to 32,568.66 points following profit taking in International Breweries (-9.5%), Zenith Bank (-1.9%) and Dangote Flour (-2.5%).

As a result, market capitalisation decreased by N16.9 billion to settle at N12.1 trillion while year-to-date gain moderated to 3.6 percent.

Activity level also weakened in line with market direction as volume and value traded declined 50.6 percent and 60.3 percent to 218.8 million units and N2.2 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were Transcorp (24.7m units), First City Monument Bank, FCMB (19.2m units) and Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB (16.5m units) while GTB (N630.2m), Zenith (N402.2m) and Nestle (N192.1m) led the top trades by value.

Performance across sectors was also largely bearish as 3 of the 5 major indices trended southwards.

The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices led laggards down 1.0 percent and 0.9 percent respectively following profit taking in Linkage Assurance (-10.0%) Mutual Benefit (-7.4%), International Breweries (-9.5%) and Dangote Flour (-2.5%).

The Banking index trailed, shedding 0.3 percent on the back of losses in Zenith (-1.9%) and Fidelity (-0.4%).

On the flip side, the Oil & Gas index rose 0.5 percent following buying interest in Oando (+3.2%) while bargain hunting in Dangote Cement (+0.3%) led to a 0.2 percent appreciation in the Industrial Goods index.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 1.3x from 1.7x recorded in the previous trading session as 20 stocks advanced against 15 decliners.

The best performing stocks were Ikeja Hotel (+10.0%), UAC-Property (+8.3%) and ABC Transport (+8.3%) while Linkage Assurance (-10.0%), International Breweries (-9.5%) and Neimeth Pharmaceuticals (-8.6%) were the worst performing stocks.

Analysts at Afrinvest expects to see further profit taking in Friday’s trading session, the eve of the rescheduled presidential election, as investors trade cautiously.