Nigerian equity market declines marginally

Nigerian equity market resumed its seesaw movement on Tuesday, dipping marginally due to sell-offs in Nigerian Flour Mills, Zenith Bank, Guinness and WAPCO.

The benchmark index declined by 0.05% to 38,704.97 points, while market capitalisation shed by ₦9.3 6billion to ₦20.2 5trillion as the year-to-date return worsened to -3.89%.

The volume and value of stocks traded, however, increased by 48% and 96% to 410million units and ₦5.9 8billion, respectively.

The most traded stocks by volume were Dangote Sugar (107.0 8million units), UBN (78.5 4million units) and Transcorp (31.5 7million units,) while Dangote Sugar (₦1.8 0bn), GTBank (₦832.2 8million) and Stanbic (₦499.7 7million) led by value.

The Services and Healthcare sectors were the top gainers, rising by 0.53% and 0.33%, respectively on the back of buy interest in Morison (8.86%) and REDSTAREX (4.26%).

The Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods sectors also appreciated 0.18% and 0.12%, driven by gains in NB (2.13%) and OANDO (+1.63%).

The ICT and Industrial Goods indices gained 0.06% and 0.02%, lifted by CAP (10.0 0%) and MTNN (0.13%).

On the other hand, the Banks and Agriculture sectors were down by 0.59% and 0.34%, respectively, on the back of losses in LIVESTOCK (-9.52%), Zenith Bank (-2.22%) and FBNH (-0.6 9%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) declined to 0.9 5x from the 3.2 5x recorded previously as 1 9 stocks gained against the 2 0 that declined. The top gainers were CAP

(1 0.00%), WAPIC (+1 0.0 0%), NPFMCRFBK (+9.94%), JBERGER (+9.89%) and FTNCOCOA (+9.3 0%), while LIVESTOCK (-9.52%), CHAMS (-8. 0%), CORNERST (-6.6 7%), CHAMPION (-6.25%) and ETI (-5.88%) lost the most.