01 June 2016, Lagos — The gains recorded in the Nigerian stock market were reversed, yesterday as investors lost N425 .6 billion as a result of panic selling.
Consequently, the All Share Index plunged 4.3 percent amid profit taking and Foreign Exchange, uncertainty speech by President Muhammadu Buhari.
After the Index touched a year high of 28,902.25 points on Friday, the benchmark index tumbled to 27,671.08 points yesterday , sending Year to Date, YTD return (-3.4%) back to the negative region.
The market value of stocks, market capitalisation shrank by N425.6bilion to close at N9.5trillion.
The stock market sharp decline was broadly driven by huge losses across the board, including market bellwethers such as ZENITH (-9.7%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.9%) and DANGOTE CEMENT (-4.6%). Market activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 46.1% to 334.9 million units while value traded rose 11.8% to N3.1bilion.
In line with the above, all sector indicators trended southwards with the Banking sector index leading the pack, down 6.6% on the back of losses in ZENITH (-9.7%) and GUARANTY (-5.2%).
In the same vein, the Industrial goods index fell 5.5%, as investors sold down on WAPCO (-7.8%) and DANGCEM (-4.6 %).
The Consumer goods and Oil & Gas indices also followed suit, declining 2.8% and 2.3% respectively, as NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-4.9%) and FORTE (-5.0%) closed lower.
The Insurance index also lost, 1.1% to close out the poor performance.
Sentiments wane
Market breadth (advancers/decliners ratio) weakened, dropping to 0.2 times from 0.9 times in the previous session as 9 stocks advanced in contrast to 39 decliners.
The top gaining stocks were TRANSEXPRESS (+9.2%), ETRANZACT (+9.0%) and UPL (+5.0%) while ZENITH (-9.7%), ETI (-9.6%) and FBNH (-9.4%) depreciated the most.
*Peter Egwuatu – Vanguard
