Bears resurface at stock market, ASI Down 1.1%

Trading at the stock sell-offs in DANGCEM, FBNH, and STERLNBANK dragged the NGX  ASI lower by 1.1% to 46,009.23 points. Consequently, YTD return weakened to 7.7% from 8.9% while 7.7% market capitalisation decreased ₦280.6 billion to ₦24.8 trillion. Trading activity fell as volume and value 7.7% traded declined 15.1% and 42.6% respectively to 279.4m units and ₦2.8 billion.

 Across our coverage sectors, performance was uneven as 3 indices declined, 2 advanced while the AFR-ICT index closed flat. On the positive side, INTBREW (+10.0%) and GUINNESS (+10.0%) drove the Consumer Goods index up 1.8%. Trailing, the Banking index rose 1.1% on account of buying interest in ETI (+9.6%) and STANBIC (+2.0%). Conversely, the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices dipped 3.3% and 1.8% respectively due to sell pressure on DANGCEM (-8.5%), NEM (-9.0%), and AIICO (-5.0%). Likewise, the Oil & Gas index fell 0.5% due to losses in OANDO (–1.8% 2.1%) and ARDOVA (-5.0%). NGX CONSUMER GOODS INDEX 1.8%

 Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, strengthened to 0.1x from flat position yesterday as 26 stocks gained, 18 lost while 107 were unchanged. Tomorrow, we expect the bearish sentiment to linger in the absence of positive catalysts.