Nigerian bourse closes bearish Wednesday as Index down 0.04%

Trading transactions on The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) turned bearish on Wednesday with a marginal dip in the All-Share Index (ASI) by 0.04 per cent to 40,772.26 points.

Accordingly, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns moderated to -1.76 per cent and 6.61 per cent respectively.

The Oil & Gas (-1.68%) index recorded the largest loss, followed by the Industrial Goods (-1.00%) and Consumer Goods (-0.40%) indices, owing to profit-taking in SEPLAT (-3.29%), WAPCO (-2.04%), and INTBREW (-2.10%) shares respectively.

On the flip side, the Banking (+0.22%) and Insurance (+0.06%) indices closed in the green, following gains in the shares of FBNH (+1.63%) and AIICO (+1.45%) respectively.

Market breadth remained positive, with 24 gainers and 18 losers, led by JAIZBANK (+10.00%) and UBN (-4.76%) respectively. Meanwhile, volume and value of trades dropped from yesterday’s record highs by 85.64% and 60.43% to 230 million units and NGN4.32 billion respectively, exchanged in 4,090 deals.

Analysts at Cordros Capital have this to say about the day trading: “Despite today’s negative performance, we reiterate our positive outlook for the equities market amidst strengthening macroeconomic fundamentals”.