Profit Taking Dominates Activity in Equity Market – The broad performance of the equity market in the previous day was bearish, as the NSE All-Share Index lost 1.1%, to close at 2 3,695.9 pts.
Consequently, the Year to Date loss worsened to -11.7%. Also, investors lost about N132.9bn in value, as market capitalization dropped to N12.3t n. In terms of activity levels, average volumes and value declined by 2 4.9% and 5.7%, to 155.7mn and N1.7bn, respectively.
Across the major sectors we cover, four out of five sectors closed negative. The Industrial goods (-1.8%) sector was the worst performer, due to DANGCEM (-4.3%) and BUA CEMENT (-0.9%). The Insurance (-0.6%) sector followed, owing to WAPIC (-6.7%) and LASACO (-7.4%).
Also, the Banking (-0.3%) sector lost points, as the prices of UBA (-1.7%) and (-0.8%) fell. The Consumer goods (-2bps) sector was the last loser, majorly due to GUINNESS (-1.1%). Finally, the Oil & Gas sector remained flat.
Elsewhere, investors’ sentiment was downbeat, as market breadth was 0.8x. Notably, 1 3 stocks gained, while 15 stocks declined. In today’s session, we expect investors to continue to look for opportunities to take profits.
United Capital Research