Stock market continues its downward turn losing 0.36% Thursday

• The Nigerian stock market continued its downward turn for the fourth consecutive session, as the NGX All Share Index (ASI) shed by 0.36% to close at 150,026.55 points. As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return moderated to 45.76% from the 46.29% recorded in the prior session. Market capitalisation depreciated by N3.47bn, to settle at N95.32trn.
• The negative momentum was driven by profit-taking in the telecom giant, MTNN (-2.49%) and select banking stocks including ZENITHBANK (-1.48%) and ETI (-4.00%), which outweighed the buying interest in select industrial goods and banking stocks including WAPCO (+1.54%), UBA (+1.36%) and FCMB (+8.00%).
• Market activity declined, as transaction volume and value fell by 44.54% and 44.58% respectively. FCMB (+8.00%) led trading volume with 149.99mn units traded, while ZENITHBANK (-1.48%) led the value chart with N2.51bn traded.
• Market breadth closed negative at 0.38x, indicating more decliners than gainers. UPDC (+9.83%) led the fifteen (15) gainers, while LEGENDINT (-9.93%) topped the thirty-nine (39) decliners.

NASD Summary

• The NASD market reversed losses from the previous session, with the NASD Securities Index (NSI) and market capitalisation appreciating by 0.96% to close at 3,658.56 points and N2.19trn, respectively.
• The market activity was mixed, with transaction volume declining by 57.94% while value of trades rose by 24.90%.
• SDFOODCPT (+9.07%) topped the market gainers while SDAIRLIQ (-11.10%) led the decliners in today’s session.