The equities market closed negative today as profit taking dragged the benchmark index 34bps lower to 44,343.65 points while YTD return contracted to 16.0%. As a result, market capitalization decreased by N53.8bn to settle at N15.9tn. The negative performance was driven by price depreciation in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.0%), INTBREW (-
However, Performance across sectors was largely mixed as 3 of 5 indices trended southwards. The Consumer Goods index was the biggest loser, down 1.1% on the back of losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-2.0%) and INTBREW (-4.9%). The Insurance index trailed, shedding 0.3% primarily due to sell offs in LAWUNION (-8.3%) and NEM (-0.6%). Similarly, losses in UBN (-3.7%) and UBA (-1.2%) pulled the Banking index 0.2% lower. On the contrary, the Industrial Goods index appreciated the most, up 1.9% as investors took positions in WAPCO (+4.6%) and CCNN (+0.5%). Also, buying interest in FORTE (+1.9%) drove the positive performance of the Oil & Gas index (+0.3%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.8x from 1.4x recorded the previous day consequent on 23 stocks advancing against 30 decliners. The top performing stocks were FLOURMILL (+10.0%), WEMA