Profit Takers Pull Market southwards, NSE ASI down 42bps

The Nigerian equities market opened the week bearish as the benchmark index dipped 0.4% to settle at 26, 217.18 points while YTD loss worsened to -2.4%.

Losses sustained in tier-1 banking stocks as well as other bellwethers – UBA (-2.7%), GUARANTY (-1.7%) and DANGCEM (-0.6%) – dragged the broader index lower while market capitalisation fell by N38.2bn to N9.0tn.

Activity level also waned as volume and value traded declined 39.6% and 65.5% to 143.5m units and N755.9m respectively.

Save for the Consumer Goods index which appreciated 0.1% due to price appreciation in 7UP (+5.0%), all sector indices closed in the red.

The Banking sector index depreciated the most, losing 1.2% on account of UBA (-2.7%) and GUARANTY (-1.7%). In the same vein, the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices fell 0.8% and 0.3% on the back of sell offs in CONTINSURE (-4.9%) and DANGCEM (-0.6%) respectively. The Oil & Gas Index also closed negative, down 2bps.

Weak Sentiment Prevails
Investor sentiment was soft as market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) stood at 0.5x following 9 stocks that advanced relative to 19 decliners. The top gainers were 7UP (+5.0%), CAVERTON (+4.3%) andETERNA (+4.0%) while CONTINSURE (-4.9%), OANDO (-4.7%) and NEIMETH (-4.1%) declined the most. Today’s performance was broadly driven by profit taking after three consecutive days of appreciation in the prior week, hence we expect market performance to remain pressured in subsequent trading sessions.