By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday dipped 0.85 percent to close at 28,488.56 points; while market capitalisation dropped by N84.26 billion to N9.78 trillion.
“Today’s performance extended the Month-to-Date loss to 3.75 percent and swung the Year-to-Date return into the negative territory (-0.54%),” Cordros daily market update said.
This coming on the heels of negative investors sentiment on the Nigerian equities market as the Banking and Insurance indices declined by 2.88 percent and 2.03 percent each, following losses in the shares of Nigeria’s top tier lender, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and insurer, Axa Mansard Insurance Plc by 3.94 percent and 2.91 percent respectively.
Similarly, the Oil and Gas index was dragged lower by 1.23 percent on selloff in the shares of oil marketer, Oando Plc by 9.70 percent after the company notified the exchange of a profit warning ahead of the release of its half-year (H1) 2016 report after market close yesterday, according to Cordros daily market update.
In the same vein, the Industrial Goods index dipped by 2.12 percent, driven by a price decline in the shares of cement producer, Lafarge Cement Wapco Plc by 5.00 percent. The cement company will on Wednesday release its H1’16 results to which it had guided for materially lower earnings compared to the previous quarter.
On the positive, the Consumer Goods index gained by 0.42 percent buoyed from the positive performance recorded by Nigeria’s brewing giant, Nigerian Breweries Plc by 1.47 percent and food and beverage maker Cadbury Nigeria Plc by 0.63 percent.
At the close of the session on the Nigerian Bourse, market breadth maintained a negative outlook, with seven (7) gainers and 26 losers recorded, the NSE’s daily market statistics said.
Skye Bank Plc emerged the top gainer for the second consecutive session with a gain of 0.06 kobo per share; while Oando topped the losers chart with a loss of 0.64 kobo per share.
In terms of turnover, total volume traded on the domestic bourse decreased by 23.32 percent to 242 million shares, valued at N1.56 billion, and traded in 3,684 deals.
“We expect negative sentiments to persist in tomorrow’s session, as today’s performance further underscores the fact that investor appetite remains weakened,” the Cordros update added.
Investment One Research affirmed its believe that in the immediate, the market may remain volatile given the lack of a positive catalyst and its expectation of less-inspiring Q2 2016 results.
“However, over the medium to longer term, we are positive given the recent traction in both fiscal and monetary policies. As such, we advise investors with a medium to longer term horizon to gradually build positions in quality names,” Investment One Research added.
