Equities Market Bearish Run Continues As ASI Dips Further By 0.15%

Profit-taking activities continued yesterday in the Nigerian equities market as investors' late selloffs in FBNH (-6.5%) drove the All Share Index lower to close at 43,285.97 basis points. Thus, the NGX ASI dip represented a 0.15% decline from its previous day figure of 43,349.90 basis points and a -0.30% decline from its Tuesday figure of 43,444.20 basis points.

When analyzing the NGX ASI, the figure still fluctuated within a safe 52-week high (43,730.55) and low (34,121.78) trading boundaries as gains dipped further. The Week-to-Date, Month-to-Date, and Year-to-Date gains dipped as gains of +0.08%, +2.97%, and +7.49% were achieved respectively.

A market capitalization decline of N22.589 billion shares as against the previous day figure of N22,622.80 billion was fueled by a decline in trade volume of 20.5% to 210.55million units, valued at N2.61 million, and exchanged in 3,423 deals.

STERLING BANK, ETRANZACT, and TRANSCORP with 60.2 million units, 14.08 million units, and 13.14 million units push the market cap to N22.589 billion. AIRTEL AFRICA continued its good performance this week and dominated the most valued stock chart with shares worth N669.95 million traded. Others were NESTLE and GTCO with a market share value of 17.85% and 11.07% respectively.

On sectors performance index, the insurance sector (+0.6%) recovered from its loss position (-0.9%) as investors traded it the most, followed by the consumer goods with (+0.1%). The oil and gas (-0.2%), banking (-0.2%) and industrial goods (-0.1%) indices suffered losses.

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 22 companies declined relative to 11 gainers. CHAMS, (-8.7%), REGALINS (-7.5%) and UNITYBANK (-7.41%) recorded the most significant losses of the day, while ETRANZACT (+10.00%), VITAFOAM (+10.00%), ACADEMY (+9.01%), JAIZBANK (+6.45%) and MANZARD (+6.33%) topped the gainers’ chart.

The surprising observation is that MBENEFIT which had dominated the losers’ chart in the past week was vacant.