Nigerian stocks close 0.46% lower as gale of losses hit Dangote Sugar, ETI, Dangote Cement

The Nigerian equities market closed Tuesday negative as the All-Share Index shed 0.46 percent to settle at 37,783.76 points while year-to-date (YTD) gain retreated to 40.6 percent from 41.2 percent previously.

Accordingly, market capitalization lost N70.1 billion to settle at N13.4 trillion from the N13.5 trillion it stood Monday.

The day’s negative performance is attributable to losses in DANSUGAR (-5%), ETI (-4%) and DANGCEM (-0.7%). However, market activity level strengthened as volume and value traded surged 221.6 percent and 42.2 percent to close at 649.6 million units and N5.4 billion respectively.

Performance across sectors was negative as all indices trended southwards save for the insurance index, which gained 0.8 percent on account of upticks in CONTINSURE (+2.9%) and LINKASSURE (+3.5%).

On the other hand, the banking index topped the losers chart, depreciating 0.7 percent due to losses in ETI (-4.0%) and ZENITH (-0.9%). The industrial goods index trailed, down 0.4 percent owing to profit taking sustained in DANGCEM (-0.7%) and WAPCO (-0.5%) while the consumer goods and oil & gas indices closed the day 0.2 percent lower apiece primarily due to losses in DANGSUGAR (-5.0%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.2%) and FORTE OIL (-2.3%).

Investor sentiment – as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) declined to 0.6x from 0.9x recorded the previous session as 14 stocks advanced against 25 decliners.

The top performers of the day were LIVESTOCK (+4.9%), UNILEVER (+4.5%) and ETERNA (+4.0%) while the worst performing stocks were CILEASING (-5.0%), DANGSUGAR (-5.0%) and NCR (-5.0%).

Despite the extended bearish sentiment, analysts are anticipating a rebound in consequent sessions on account of bargain hunting.

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