Weak investor appetite weigh on Nigerian stock market, sell pressures on bellwethers continues, forcing index down 2.1%

A weak investor appetite weighed negatively on the Nigerian stock market Wednesday with Tuesday’s sell pressures on bellwethers continuing for a second day and forcing the market’s All-Share Index down by as much as 2.1 percent.

Sell pressures in DANGCEM (-3.2%), STANBIC (-10,0%), and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-6.4%) contributed to dragging the All Share Index (ASI) southwards by 2.1 percent to settle at 32,466.27 points while year-to-date loss further extended to -15.4 percent.

In line with market performance, market capitalisation depreciated N256.1 billion to settle at N11.9 trillion. Activity level also weakened, as volume and value traded trended lower by 31.3 percent and 37.2 percent to 212.5 million units and N3.8 billion respectively.

Sustained sell pressures on previous sessions gainers indicate investor profit taking, said analysts at Afrinvest.

Consequently they expect the bearish sentiment to remain elevated till close of the week and advised investors to maintain cautious optimism.

The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (43.6m), ZENITH (29.6m), and FCMB (22.1m) while the top traded stocks by value were GUARANTY (N1.6bn), ZENITH (N695.8m) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N572.8m).

Performance across sectors was largely bearish with the oil & gas index emerging the day’s lone gainer due to gains in OANDO (+5.0%) and FO (+1.9%) on the back of positive 9M’2018 results which drove the index higher by 0.7 percent.

The industrial index depreciated the most, down 2.0 percent, following sell-offs in DANGCEM(-3.2%). The consumer goods and banking indices trailed in the negative trend, as they shed 1.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively, due to sell pressures in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-6.4%), GUINNESS (-5.2%), STANBIC (-10.0%), and GUARANTY (-1.3%). Losses in WAPIC (-7.0%) and NEM (-1.0%) dragged the insurance index lower by 0.4 percent.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.5x from 0.7x recorded yesterday as 15 stocks appreciated against 30 decliners.

REGALINS (+10.0%), INTBREW (+10.0%) and AIRSERVICE (+10.0%) were the best performing stocks while the worst performing stocks were UNIONDAC (-10.0%%), STANBIC (-10.0%) and DANGFLOUR (-9.8%).