Equities sustain negative performance, as investors lose N50bn

The local bourse closed in the red as the All-Share Index depreciated 39bps due to losses in Dangote Cement  (-3.2percent), Zenith (-0.6percent) and International Brewery (-9.2percent), to close at 24,174.45 points.

As a result, market capitalisation declined to N12.5tn as investors lost N49.6bn while YTD loss worsened to -9.9percent. Activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 0.3percent to 304.2m units while value traded rose 55.6percent to N3.3bn.

The most active stocks by volume were FBNH (82.2m units), CUSTODIAN (30.3m units) and STERLING (28.0m units) while DANGCEM (N696.4m), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (N626.6m) and FBNH (N407.6m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was bearish as 4 of 6 indices under review lost. The AFR-ICT index was the lone gainer, up 0.5percent due to buying interest in MTNN (+0.8percent).

Conversely, the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices recorded the worst performance, shedding 1.6percent and 0.9percent respectively owing to sell-pressures in DANGCEM (-3.2percent) and CORNERSTONE (-9.1percent).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) rose to 1.7x from the 0.9x recorded in the previous session as 15 stocks advanced against the 9 that declined.