Stock market loses steam, market capitalisation shed ₦19.1bn

Today, the domestic bourse resumed trading post Easter holidays on a negative note as the NGX-ASI fell 3bps to 47,545.86 points following price decline in UBA (-2.4%), NB (- 1.7%), and ZENITH (-0.6%). As such, YTD return moderated to 11.31% (previously: 11.34%) while market capitalisation shed ₦19.1bn to ₦25.6tn. Trading activity was mixed as volume traded fell 5.1% to 365.5m units while value traded rose 76.9% to ₦7.1bn.

Across our sector coverage, performance was negative as 4 indices lost, 1 gained, while the AFR-ICT index closed flat. The Banking and Insurance indices lost 31bps and 9bps respectively due to losses in UBA (-2.4%), ZENITH (-0.6%), LINKASSURE (-5.9%), and WAPIC (-4.6%%). Following suit, the Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices declined 2bps and 1bp accordingly following sell pressure on ARDOVA (-1.2%) and WAPCO (-0.2%). Conversely, the Consumer Goods index grew 26bps, courtesy of the price uptick in GUINNESS (+6.9%) and DANGSUGAR (+1.0%). Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, weakened to -0.16x from 0.05x as 21 stocks advanced, 31 declined while 61 closed flat. Tomorrow, we expect the market performance to remain bearish on waning investor sentiment.