Nigerian bourse continues bearish run as Index down 0.13% Wednesday

The Nigerian equities market sustained its bearish trend for the third trading session this week as the benchmark index declined by 0.13 per cent, to 31,040.84 points on Wednesday weighed by a NESTLE led selloff.

Thus, the Month-to-Date and the Year-to-Date returns decreased to -2.14 per cent and -1.24 per cent respectively.

On sectoral performance, the Consumer Goods (-0.94%), Industrial Goods (-0.45%), Insurance (-0.50%) and Oil & Gas (+0.29%) indices all closed in the red, following declines in NESTLE (-1.74%), BETAGLAS (-8.92%), AIICO (-8.45%), and OANDO (-4.27%) respectively.

On the flip side, investor sentiment remained positive across Banking stocks, with its index rising 0.91 per cent, driven by appreciation in ACCESS (+9.24%).

Market breadth was negative, with 23 losers and 14 gainers, led by CUTIX (-9.76%) and NIGERINS (+9.52%) shares, respectively. Total volume of trades decreased by 22.04% to 223.66 million units, valued at NGN286.89 billion, and exchanged in 3,419 deals.

According to analysts at Cordros Capital:“In the absence of a positive catalyst, we guide investors to trade cautiously in the short term. However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals and compelling valuation remain supportive of recovery in the mid-to-long term”.

In the currency market, the USD/NGN depreciated by 0.07% to NGN360.40 in the I&E FX window, but closed flat at NGN360.00 at the parallel market. Total turnover in the IEW increased by 173.69% to USD277.11 million, with trades consummated within the NGN357.50-NGN361.25/USD band.