Bearish Trend Continues As ASI Dips Further By -0.32%

Trading in the NGX equities market maintained its bearish trend as the ASI declined further by -0.32% from its previous day figure of 43,245.02 basis points to close at 43,108.77 basis points.

This was largely influenced by investors’ huge sell-off of shares of NB (-5.1%) and SEPLAT (-3.4%).

Thus, market capitalization currently stands at NGN22.494 trillion.

Accordingly, the Week-to-Date fell by -0.21% for the first time this month, while the month-to-date and year-to-date returns moderated to +2.6% and +7.1%, respectively.

The total volume traded increased by 9.43% to 266.12 million units sold, valued at NGN4.22 billion, and exchanged in 3,905 deals.

HONEY FLOUR was the most traded stock by volume at 52.47 million units sold, followed by GTCO with 22.96 million shares and ZENITH BANK 22.9 million units sold.

While SEPLAT was the most traded stock by value at NGN1.18 billion taking up exactly 28.08% of the stocks traded. while GTCO and ZENITH BANK followed with NGN578million and NGN559million respectively.

On sectors, the Insurance (+0.6%) index maintained its excellent performance as it recorded the sole gain, while the Oil and Gas (-1.6%), Banking (-1.2%), and Consumer Goods (-1.1%) indices declined. The Industrial Goods index was flat.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative as 24 companies lost relative to 13 gainers. MRS (-9.9%), CHAMS (-8.7%), ETI (-8.57%), CHIPLC (-8.06%) and UNITY BANK (-7.2%) sustained the most losses, while HONEYFLOUR (+9.8%) despite the current legal issues with ECOBANK NIGERIA LIMITED and pending takeover topped the gainers list. HONEYFLOUR was followed by AIICO (+8.47%), REGALINS (+8.33%), IKEJA HOTEL (+8.00%) and UPL (+8.00%).