Bears resurface as NSE Index drops 1.09% Wednesday

The bears resurfaced in the Nigerian equities market on Wednesday, halting the four-day bull run, with the All-Share Index (ASI) dropping 1.09 per cent to 39,031.72 points, as investors booked profit on previous gains.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date losses moderated to -4.35 per cent and -4.26 per cent, respectively.

The Consumer Goods (-2.31%) index posted the largest loss, owing to profit taking in NESTLE (-2.50%) shares.

There were sell pressure in the shares of ACCESS (-3.00%) and DANGCEM (-1.28%), led to the negative returns in the Banking (-0.66%) and Industrial Goods (-0.42%) indices.

On the flip side, the Oil & Gas (+0.57%) and Insurance (+0.02%) indices closed positive, owing to interest in TOTAL (+3.83%) and MBENEFIT (+8.33%) shares, respectively.

Market breadth remained negative, with 24 losers and 17 gainers, led by CAP (-10.00%) and NEIMETH (+10.00%) shares.

Total volume of trades dipped by 1.94% to 240.21 million units, valued at NGN4.99 billion, and exchanged in 3,494 deals.

“We guide investors to trade cautiously in the short-to-medium term, as the absence of a positive one-off catalyst and brewing political concerns, continue to cast a shadow on our outlook for risky assets. However, the likelihood of recovery in the long term remains supported by stable macroeconomic fundamentals”. Analysts at Cordros Capital advised.