By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Wednesday plunged for the third consecutive day as all-share index (ASI) declined by 0.86 percent to close at 23,883.34 basis points, while market capitalisation dropped by N68.48 billion to N8.22 trillion, according to Cordros daily market update.
The update says today’s trend brought the Month-to-Date (M-t-D) loss to 0.14 percent and increasing the Year-to-Date (Y-t-D) loss to 16.62 percent.
According to Cordros, the Banking and Consumer Goods sectors reported losses of 2.96 percent and 0.75 percent respectively, on the back of price depreciations in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lender, Zenith Bank Plc by 4.98 percent, financial Holdco, FBN Holdings Plc by 4.41 percent – owing to a profit warning released today.
On the Consumer Goods sector, brewer, Guinness Nigeria Plc lost 4.92 percent and soap and detergent producer, Unilever Nigeria Plc dipped by 4.25 percent.
In the same vein, the Insurance index closed on a negative note dropping by 1.02 percent; owing to a decline in the shares of insurer, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc by 4.85 percent.
On the contrary, gains in the shares of cable manufacturer, Cutix Plc by 4.64 percent and oil marketer, Mobil Nigeria Plc by 0.34 percent drove the Industrial Goods and Oil and Gas indices higher 0.01 percent and 0.02 percent respectively.
At the close of the day’s session on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth remained negative, with 13 gainers and 23 losers. African Prudential Registrars Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 0.12 percent; while FCMB Group topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.05 kobo per share to close the session, according to the NSE’s daily market statistics.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the Nigerian equities market at the close of the day rose by 33.60 percent to 269.50 million shares valued at N1.22 billion in 3,002 deals.
“We expect investors’ appetite to remain weakened, as a result of (1) the negative corporate release (FBNH’s profit warning) that hit the market today, and (2) fresh pressure on oil prices, stemming from Saudi Arabia ruling out production cuts,” the Cordros update added.
