Bears sustain hold as NSE Index down 0.67% Wednesday

The Nigerian equities market sustained its bearish run for the third consecutive session on Wednesday as the benchmark index declined by 0.67 per cent — largest decline since March 12th — to 30,829.45 points, driven by sell-offs across Tier I banking stocks.

Thus, the Month-to-Date and the Year-to-Date returns decreased to -2.80 per cent and -1.91 per cent respectively.

On sectoral performance, the Banking (-0.98%), Consumer Goods (-0.35%), Insurance (-1.32%) and Oil & Gas (-0.84%) indices recorded losses, while the Industrial Goods (+0.91%) index closed in the green. Notable stocks include GUARANTY (-3.74%), GUINNESS (-2.42%), CUSTODIAN (-3.17%) SEPLAT (-1.82%) and CUTIX (+9.73%), respectively.

Market breadth was negative, with 19 losers and 11 gainers, led by NEM (-5.53%) and UNIONDAC (+10.00%) shares, respectively. Total volume of trades decreased by 8.54% to 131.43 million units, valued at NGN1.40 billion, and exchanged in 2,786 deals.

“We reiterate our negative outlook for the equities market in the short-to-medium term, amidst absence of a positive market trigger. However, positive macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term”, analysts at Cordros Capital said.