Stock: Investors Lose N9.8bn On Equities

The bearish sentiment in the local bourse persisted for most trading days last week as the All Share Index (ASI) declined on three of five trading days: Monday (-44bps), Tuesday (-34bps) and Friday (-17bps), with gains only on Wednesday (+6ps) and Thursday (+82bps).

Consequently, market capitalisation fell to N12.7tn as investors lost N9.8bn, while Year-To-Date (YTD) loss worsened to -9.5 per cent.

Activity level was mixed as average volume traded advanced 12.6 per cent to 203.1m units, while average value traded declined 44.7 per cent to N1.5bn.

Sterling Bank (293.7m units), FCMB (55.8m units) and FBNH (49.7m units) were the most traded by volume, while MTNN (N1.5bn), Guaranty Trust Bank (N677.0m) and Zenith Bank (N366.0m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was bearish as four of six indices closed negative week-on-week (w/w).

The AFR-ICT and industrial goods indices were the gainers, up 3.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively following price appreciation in Airtel Africa (+5.9 per cent), CUTIX (+10.3 per cent) and BUA Cement (+1.2 per cent).

On the flip side, the banking index led laggards, depreciating 3.9 per cent due to sell pressures in Unity Bank (-8.2 per cent), Zenith (-5.7 per cent) and GTB (-4.2 per cent).

Likewise, sell-offs in Link Assurance (-14.9 per cent), Nigerian Breweries IES (-11.9 per cent) and Conoil (-10.6 per cent) dragged the insurance, consumer and oil and gas indices lower by 1.9 per cent apiece.