The equities market started the week on a bearish note, as the NSE-ASI declined by 0.91% yesterday, to close at 24,954.32pts. As a result, YTD return moderated to -7.0% and market capitalization closed at N13.1tn.
Also, activity levels weakened as average volumes and value traded declined by 30.0% and 53.0%, to 237.7mn and N1.6bn respectively.
In terms of sectoral performance, four out of the five sectors we track closed the day in the red territory.
Notably, the Insurance sector index was the day’s sole gainer, up 0.9% thanks to price appreciations in CORNEST (+9.8%), MANSARD (+8.1%) and MBENEFIT (+4.6%). Contrariwise, the Banking sector index recorded the most loss as investors took profit in ZENITHBANK (-2.7%), FBNH (-1.9%), and ACCESS (-0.7%). Similarly, the Industrial Goods (-1.4%), Oil &Gas (-0.3%) and Consumer Goods (0.003%) sector joined the losers camp, amid price declines in BUACEMENT (-1.8%) WAPCO (-2.7%), OANDO (-3.1%) and UACPROP (-6.7%).
Investor sentiment was underwhelming, evident by a market breadth of 0.6x, as 8 stocks gained while 13 stocks lost.
In terms of corporate actions, Stanbic IBTC announced the appointment of Mr Demola Sogunle as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and Wole Adeniyi as the Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc.
Looking ahead, we expect the market to remain volatile, as investors continue position in cheap and fundamentally strong stocks while taking profit on some stocks that have gained over the previous week.
United Capital Plc Research
