Nigeria equities market fails to sustain gain

Nigeria’s stock market on Tuesday March 2 reversed previous day’s gains as sell-side pressure on consumer goods stocks rerouted the market which lost N123billion.

All sectoral indices closed in red, except NSE Insurance Index which rose by 0.21percent. NSE Consumer Goods Index was down by 3.86percent, NSE Banking (-0.12percent), NSE Industrial Index (-0.41percent), NSE Oil & Gas (-0.88percent) and NSE Pension (-1.07percent).

In the absence of major positive news that could sway investors’ sentiment, the bearish pattern will continue in Wednesday’s session. The record 0.59 percent dip at the close of remote trading session on the Nigerian Bourse was led by remarkable decline in the shares of Mutual Benefit, Ardova, Champion Breweries and Sterling Bank.

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The market has furthered its year-to-date (YtD) movement into the red zone with return of -1.42percent. The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation decreased from day open high of 39,931.63 points and N20.892trillion respectively to 39,697.62 points and N20.769trillion.

In 4,470 deals, investors exchanged 222,573,570 units valued at N5.390billion. Zenith Bank, United Capital, Mutual Benefit, Japaul Gold and AXA Mansard were actively traded stocks on the Bourse.

The share price of Mutual Benefit decreased most, from 40kobo to 36kobo, after losing 4kobo or 10percent. Ardova followed, dipping from N18.05 to N16.25, down by N1.8 or 9.97percent.

Champion Breweries Plc was also down, from N2.27 to N2.05, shedding 22kobo or 9.69percent, while Sterling Bank decreased from N1.6 to N1.46, losing 14kobo or 8.75percent.