NSE’s ASI dips by N134 billion in bearish trading

MARKET capitalisation shed weight yesterday on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by N134.9 billion, to close at N9.6 trillion. 

  The dipped further by 139bps as the All Share Index also dipped by 139 points, closing at 28,721.27 points from previous day’s trade, on account of selling pressure in large and medium cap stocks.

  However, activity level measured by aggregate volume and value rose by 5.8 per cent and 47.4 per cent respectively, to close at 339.5 million units and N6.1 billion in that order.

  Generally, negative sentiments trailed sector indices.

  For instance, all the sector indices closed in the red with the NSE Industrial sector losing the most by 2.4 per cent, attributable largely to selling pressure in the shares of Ashaka Cement (5.0 per cent), Dangote Cement (3.2 per cent) and Lafarge WAPCO (2.4 per cent).

   Closely trailing the industrial sector is the oil and gas sector, which lost 1.9 per cent due to decline in the share price of Forte Oil (4.5 per cent) and Oando (2.2 per cent). 

  Similarly the NSE banking, consumer goods and insurance indices lost one per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively.

  Market breadth also closed negative after settling at 0.4x (11 advancers against 28 decliners). 

  Top gainers at the end of yesterday’s trading session were Betaglass (4.9 per cent), Julius Berger (4.1 per cent) and Airline Services (3.9 per cent); while Ashaka Cement, Flourmills and Nascon led the losers’ chart with five per cent  decline a piece. 

  Whilst five consecutive days of losses have been sustained amidst weak macroeconomic fundamentals, market’s RSI currently pegs at 25.8 and may signal a near term temporary bullish run. 

Further analysis of yesterday’s trading shown that investors traded a turnover of 339c.451 million shares worth N6.104 billion in 3512 deals against 320.795 million shares valued at N4.143 billion exchanged hands in 4116 deals.. Financial service Sector led the activities during the day with account of 270.740 million shares worth N1.928 billion in 2071 deals. 

    Banking subsector was the most active in the sector accounting for 160.859 million shares valued at N1.426 billion made in 1197 deals. Access Bank Plc was the toast of investors with account of 65.385 million shares valued at N390.910 million in 95 deals and  Zenith International Bank exchanged 42.816 million shares worth N684.743 million in 325 deals. 

    Other financial service sub-sector came second  in the sector with a total of 103.932 million valued at N497.579 million in 774 deals. 

   FBN Holdings was the investors delight as it sold 53.594 million shares cost N372.489 million in 603 deals and FCMB traded 43.593 million shares valued at N88.545 million in 85 deals. 

  Conglomerates Sector enhanced by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria followed in the NSE daily activities with account of 31.061 million shares worth N105.729 million in 198 deals.