Market begins week on bearish note, cap dips N471.99bn

cover, Financial Markets

The Nigerian Exchange continued with its bearish trading on Monday as sustained profit-taking dragged the NGX All-Share Index down by 0.50 per cent to 148,781.90 points.

Market capitalisation also dipped by 0.50 per cent to N94.53tn, resulting in a N471.99bn loss to investors. The decline pushed the year-to-date return to 44.55 per cent.

The bearish trading was driven by sell-offs in Linkage Assurance (-10 per cent), NAHCO (-9.95 per cent), Guaranty Trust Holding Company (-0.59 per cent), and others.

Market sentiment was also bearish, with market breadth printing at 0.33x, as 40 laggards, led by Linkage Assurance (-10.00 per cent), outpaced 13 gainers, which were led by Aso Savings (+10.00 per cent), Cornerstone Insurance (+8.70 per cent), and Fidelity Bank (+4.81 per cent).

Trading activity slowed significantly as volume traded declined by 30.9 per cent to 364.35 million units and value traded fell by 26.2 per cent to N11.35bn. Despite the weaker liquidity, deal count rose by 32.18 per cent to 32,564 trades, a trend which Cowry Asset Management Limited said is consistent with increased retail participation via smaller trade sizes.

AccessCorp led the volume chart with 22.8 million units (6.3 per cent of total volume) traded, while Dangote Cement led the value chart with N2.15bn (19.0 per cent of total value) worth of trades.

On the sectoral front, the bears ruled as insurance (-4.24 per cent) and consumer goods (-1.32 per cent) indices bled, dragged by sell-offs in AIICO (-9.89 per cent) and INTBREW (-8.33 per cent), respectively.

Declines in United Bank for Africa (-4.88 per cent) and Cutix (-6.06 per cent) impacted the banking (-0.65 per cent) and industrial goods (-0.01 per cent) indices, respectively. The commodity and oil and gas indices closed flat.

Cowry Asset Management Limited, in its daily market report, revealed that “the trading dynamics reflected reduced investor appetite. The confluence of weakened volume, lower values, and fragmented trading underscores cautious positioning as market participants continue de-risking strategies in response to challenging macroeconomic conditions.”