Stock Market Down 0.10% as Weak Sentiment Persists

Trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange

There was no respite for investors in the Nigerian equities market on Thursday as the market continued its bearish run driven by weak sentiment.

The market has since the beginning of this week maintained a poor run as most investors book profits following previous gains.

At the close of business yesterday, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index mildly declined by 0.10 per cent to close at 34,494.36 points.  In the same vein, the market capitalisation of listed equities also shed N11.96 billion to close at N11.75 trillion for the day.

Yesterday’s poor performance was specifically as a result of the sell pressure on Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Unilever Nigeria Plc, which trimmed a cumulative 167.01 points off the index.
However, the turnover by volume of transaction increased by 58.13 per cent relative to the previous day trading session closing figure while the value of transaction also increased by 1.85 per cent. Major transaction volume was driven by activities in the banking, insurance, oil & gas and conglomerates sector led by WAPIC Insurance Plc, TRANSCORP Plc, UBA Plc, Access Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc in that order.

But the banking subsector of the financial service sector remained the most active in terms of the volume of shares traded. It led the equities sector with a total of 188.98 million shares valued at N1.7 billion made in 2,030 deals.

The volume of shares sold in the banking sector was largely driven by the activity in the shares of UBA Plc, Access Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Fidelity bank Plc. Trading on the shares of the four banks accounted for 163.4 million shares or 86.5 per cent of the banking sector’s turnover
Meanwhile, performance across other sectors was mixed. The Oil & Gas (+1.27%) and Consumer (+0.54%) trackers featured as the sectors gainers. On the other hand, Industrials (-0.31%) closed in the red.

At the end of today’s trading, 27 stocks appreciated in value (previous day 33), 19 stocks depreciated in value (previous day 23) while 54 stocks remain unchanged; making a total of 100 stocks that were actively transacted in today’s trading.