Sell-offs in highly capitalised stocks ended the successive gains recorded on the nation’s bourse as the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)’s All Share Index (ASI) slipped by 0.83 per cent to 29,462.76 points.
Consequently, year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 9.8 per cent, while market capitalisation declined N127.6 billion to N15.176 trillion. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 2.2 per cent to 272.8 million units, while value fell by 11.9 per cent to N3.7 billion, exchanged in 4,945 deals. Similarly, Zenith Bank (57.8 million units), Access Bank (33 million units) and UBA (22.4 million units) led the most traded stocks by volume while Zenith (N1.3 billion), Dangote Cement (N414 million) and MTNN (N351.2 million) led by value.
Despite sell-offs, sector performance remained bullish as four of the six sectors gained. The Insurance (+0.7 per cent) and Consumer Goods (+0.3 per cent) indices led gainers, riding on the back of price appreciation in Mansard (+1.4 per cent) and Law Union (+9.1 per cent).
Similarly, gains were recorded in the Oil & Gas (+0.3 per cent)and AFR-ICT (+0.1 per cent) indices, due to buying interest in Oando (+2.3 per cent) and MTNN (-0.2 per cent). Conversely, price declines in Access Bank (-6.5 per cent) and DANGCEM (-1.1 per cent) led the Banking (-3.6 per cent) and Industrial Goods (-0.5 per cent) indices southward.