The local bourse sustained previous day’s loss as the benchmark index declined 34bps to close at 24,117.40 points following price depreciation in GUARANTY (-3.2%), ZENITH (-3.7%) and ACCESS (-3.2%). Consequently, investors lost ₦44.9bn as market capitalisation fell to ₦12.6tn while YTD loss worsened to -10.2%. Activity level waned as volume and value traded declined 10.0% and 50.9% to 208.2m units and ₦1.1bn respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were STERLING (78.9m units), UBA (15.8m units) and JAPAULOIL (12.8m units) while GUARANTY (₦222.9m), ZENITH (₦167.1m) and STERLING (₦98.6m) led by value.
Bullish Sector Performance
Performance across sectors under our coverage was bullish as 3 of 6 indices advanced, 1 lost while the Oil & Gas and AFR-ICT indices remained unchanged. The Banking index was the lone laggard, shedding 2.8% due to sell pressures in ZENITH (-3.7%), GUARANTY (-3.2%) and ACCESS (-3.2%). On the other hand, buying interest in UNILEVER (+9.6%) and BUACEMENT (+0.6%) buoyed gains in the Consumer (+0.4%) and Industrial (+0.3%) Goods indices respectively while the Insurance index rose marginally by 0.1% due to price appreciation in REGALINS (+4.6%) and NEM (+0.5%).
Investor Sentiment Weakens
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.5x from the 0.8x recorded in the previous session as 8 stocks advanced against the 15 decliners. The top gainers were UNILEVER (+9.6%), CHAMS (+4.5%) and REGALINS (+4.5%) while ARBICO (-9.9%), GLAXOSMITH (-9.4%) and ABCTRANS (-9.1%) lost the most. We continue to see sell pressures dominate the market as investor sentiment remains weak. Hence, we expect a mixed performance for the week.
