Profit taking furthers market decline …NSE ASI down 130bps

The Nigerian Equities Market continued downbeat as the Benchmark Index -All Share Index (ASI), declined further by 1.3% to close at 29,553.69 points. This is due to increased profit taking in banking stocks such as GTBANK (7.5%), ZENITH (4.5%) and FBNH (4.3%). Market capitalisation declined N125.43bn to settle at N9.86tn. Market activity as measured by Volume and value traded, increased by 51.3% and 79.4% to close at 452.20m units and N3.28bn respectively.
All Sector Close South Save Industrial
All sector indices closed in the red save for the Industrial sector index which closed flat. The Banking sector continues to lead the sector losers with 3.9% against the backdrop of losses recorded in GTBANK (7.5%), ZENITH (4.5%) and FBNH (4.3%). The Oil & Gas index also dipped 2.1% followed by the Insurance index which closed at 0.3% and the Consumer Goods index which closed at 0.1%.
Market Mood Stays Bearish
Market sentiment remains negative today with a Market Breadth (advancers/ decliners ratio) of 0.3x as only 6 stocks advanced as against 24 decliners. The gainers table was topped by ACCESS (10.0%) followed by COSTAIN (4.7%) and INTENEGINS (3.8%) while UBCAP (6.1%), DIAMONDBANK (5.0%) and UBN (5.0%) led the list of laggards. We believe the sell pressure noticed today may persist in the near term as investors begin to trade cautiously in expectation of MPC pronouncements in the coming week, even as election date approaches.