The Nigerian equities market trading session today remained bearish with the attendant negative implications for returns on investment for investors.
Data from the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX), the local bourse’s supervisory group, indicated that the decline in trading value of listed stocks was marginal, as the NGX-ASI edged down by -0.04% to close at 98,023.23.
The slight drop was largely driven by profit-taking in MTNN (-4.84%) and NGXGROUP(-8.32%), amongst others, thereby necessitating the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return to stand at 31.09%, with a market capitalization loss of NGN21.1 billion to settle at NGN 59.39 trillion.
According to the NGX data, the market breadth returned 1.43x, up from the previous session’s 0.83x, with 33 advancers compared to 23 decliners.
Investment analysts at Bancorp Securities Limited believed that upward shift in breadth signals renewed buying interest, even amid slight overall declines, adding that the UD ratio of 1.60x further confirms this, indicating that buying volume in advancing stocks outpacing decliners.
On the local bourse’s sectoral performance, the Banking sector led gainers’ chart, appreciating by 1.73% on buying interest in ACCESSCORP (1.16%), FCMB (2.76%), GTCO (5.34%), and FIDELITYBK (2.89%) while the Industrial Goods sector followed with a gain of 0.24%, fuelled by a 4.05% increase in WAPCO.
Similarly, the trading data showed that the Oil and Gas sector gained 0.22%, driven by a 5.33% share price increase in JAPAULGOLD.
Conversely, the Consumer Goods and Insurance sectors declined by -0.11% and -0.71%, respectively, driven by declines in PZ (-10.00%), WAPIC (-8.70%), and CORNERST (-7.06%) amongst others.
At the end of the day’s trading session, the trading metrics were positive as total volume appreciated by 34.97% recorded in 538 million units and total value traded appreciated by 71.43% to settle at N15.3 billion.
An analysis of the metrics indicated that JAIZBANK topped the volume traded for the day accounting for 19.79% of the total volume traded while MTNN topped the value traded accounting for 35.21% of the total value traded, which settled at N5.38 billion.
Based on the current trend in the NGX trading, the investment experts at Bancorp Securities Limited “advised that investors remained cautious in taking positions, as investors are advised to take position in stocks with high fundamentals. The UD ratio and Market breadth confirm a minimal support level in the market, therefore any strong news as more earnings could support the index level.”
