Market Return Moderated as Investors Offload Stocks
Stock market return moderated below 30% on Thursday as equities investors continue to offloading their portfolios.
In the penultimate trading session for the week, the local equities market declined, extending yesterday’s loss as ZENITH (-6.2%), WAPCO (-10.0%) and FBNH (-10.0%) closed in the red.
Accordingly, the All Share Index fell 127 basis points (bps) to settle at 34,577.26 points.
Hence, market capitalisation declined by ₦232.1 billion to ₦18.1 trillion while year to date return moderated to 28.8%.
Activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 95.7% and 94.1% to 553.9m units and ₦6.6bn respectively.
The most traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY (87.0m units), ZENITH (65.0m units) and TRANSCORP (52.5m units).
Meanwhile GUARANTY (₦2.8bn), ZENITH (₦1.5bn) and MTNN (₦405.0m) led by value.
Afrinvest said performance across sectors was bearish as all indices under its coverage closed southward.
The Banking and Insurance indices lost, down 4.1% and 3.7% respectively on account of sell-offs in ZENITH (-6.2%), FBNH (-10.0%), MANSARD (-6.1%) and AIICO (-5.4%).
Similarly, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices trailed, shedding 1.1% and 0.7% respectively following losses in DANGSUGAR (-6.9%), GUINNESS (-9.8%), WAPCO (-10.0%) and CUTIX (-6.8%).
Additionally, sell pressures in OANDO (-6.4%), ARDOVA (-1.1%) and MTNN (-0.8%) dragged the Oil & Gas and AFR-ICT indices down by 0.7% and 0.4% respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth declined to 0.2x from the 0.6x recorded in the previous session as 6 stocks gained against the 40 that declined.
Read Also: Policy on Remittances, Oil Price Rebound Could Restore Naira – Analysts
OKOMUOIL (+10.0%), MBENEFIT (+9.1%) and FTNCOCOA (+8.1%) led the gainers while WAPCO (-10.0%), FBNH (-10.0%) and UPL (-10.0%) led the decliners.
Moving forward, analysts at Afrinvest said they expect the market to close the week in the red as investor sentiment remains weak.
The post Market Return Moderated as Investors Offload Stocks appeared first on MarketForces Africa.
source https://dmarketforces.com/market-return-moderated-as-investors-offload-stocks/