The All Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Bourse closed negative today, losing 212.12 points to close at 25,032.17 points, as the bearish run in large-cap FMCGs continued unabated.
Consequently, investors lost N73.5 billion as market capitalization declined to N8.6 trillion, while MTD and YTD loss of the benchmark index worsened to 3.9 percent and 6.9 percent respectively.
Today’s performance was dragged by sustained sell-pressure on NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-5.0 percent), in addition to losses in NESTLE (-3.9 percent) and ZENITH (-3.8 percent).
However, market activity improved as volume and value traded rose 2.1 percent and 38.5 percent to 144.9 million units and N1.9 billion respectively.
Forte Bounces Back after 12 Consecutive Sessions of Losses
Sector indices were largely bearish as the Oil & Gas index emerged the sole gaining sector, buoyed by gains in FORTE (+5.0%) and OANDO (+2.1%).
The Consumer Goods index nose-dived (-3.3%) to extend bearish run to 6th consecutive session, as investors further sold-off on NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-5.0%) and NESTLE (-3.9%).
Similarly, the Banking index bucked yesterday’s gains as investors’ took profit in ZENITH (-3.8%) and ACCESS (-1.3%), while the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices closed 0.2% lower apiece on account of price decline in AIICO (-3.3%), NEM (-1.3%) and CAP (-4.9%).
But despite the underwhelming performance of main market indices, investor sentiment improved as reflected in the breadth which rose to 1.1x (15 advancing stocks against 14 decliners) relative to 0.9x in the previous session.
The best performing stocks today were FORTE (+5.0%), PZ (+4.9%) and UACN (+4.5%) while NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-5.0%), ETERNA (-5.0%) and CAP (-4.9%) led laggards.
Notwithstanding the weak performance of the market today, we suspect a shift in sentiment in subsequent sessions.
This conclusion is drawn from today’s market breadth and activity performance which suggest investors are hunting for bargains in the mid and small-cap segments.
Afrinvestor
Adedapo Adesanya 
Modupe Gbadeyanka