By Peter Egwuatu
The stock market returned to a bearish note on Monday , thus halting the seven day gaining streak as the Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index (NSE ASI) depreciated by 0.88 percent to close at 30,732.72 points, compared with the appreciation of 1.38 percent recorded last Friday.
Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE
The depreciation recorded in the share prices of Etranzact , Dangote Cement, Seplat, Transcorp, GT Bank and Lafarge Africa were mainly responsible for the loss recorded in the Index.
Meanwhile, the Year to Date, YtD loss worsened to 2.2 percent as market capitalization declined by N101.6billion to settle at N11.5trillion.
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However, activity level strengthened as volume and value traded increased by 66.0 percent and 47.0 percent to 499.2billion units and N5.5 trillion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were Diamond Bank(239.4million units), Guaranty Trust Bank (119.3million units) and Zenith Bank (26.1million units) while top traded stocks by value were Guaranty (N3.8billion), Zenith (N563.2million) and Diamond Bank (N497.9million).
Sector performance was mixed as only two of five sectors closed in the green. The Insurance index advanced the most up 1.5 percent on the back of gains in NEM Insurance (+4.8 percent), Link Assurance (+8.9 percent) and WAPIC (+5.0 percent).
Similarly, the Industrial Goods index inched northwards by 1.0 percent following modest gains in Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, CCNN (+7.2 percent).
On the flipside, the Oil and Gas index led the losers, down 4.5 percent following price depreciation in SEPLAT (-8.0 percent) and Oando (-1.1 percent) while the banking index closed in the red on the back of losses in Unity Bank (-4.4 percent) and Wema Bank (-1.6 percent). However, the Consumer Goods index closed flat as trades within the sector were unable to move in index.
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Investor sentiment measured by market breadth weakened as 13 stocks advanced against the 18 stocks that declined. The top outperforming stocks for the day were Linkage Assurance advancing by N0.05 (+8.93 percent ), ABC Transport gained N0.02 (+7.4 percent) and CCNN garnered N1.80(+7.2 percent), while ETRANZACT dropped by N0.31 (-8.7 percent), SEPLAT declined by N46.00 (-8.0 percent) and RESORTSAL depreciated by N0.02 (-7.7 percent) to be the top underperforming stocks.
Analysts at Afrinvest Research said: “We expect today’s performance to persist into tomorrow’s trading session, as we maintain our near-term bearish outlook for the domestic equities market.”