Stock selloffs leads to 0.40% market decline on Tuesday

• The Nigerian equities market traded bearish for the second session this week, as the NGX All Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.40% to close at 140,929.60 points. Consequently, the year-to-date return eased to 36.92% from 37.48% in the previous session. Market capitalisation also sheds N326.19bn (-0.36%), to settle at N89.20trn.
• The bearish sentiment was driven by stock selloffs recorded in GTCO (-3.23%), WAPCO (-4.00%), DANGSUGAR (-10.00%), and ACCESSCORP (-4.98%), which offsets buying interest in ZENITHBANK (+3.35%), CUSTODIAN (+9.40%), INTBREW (+2.34%), and NGXGROUP (+6.99%).
• Sectoral performance was broadly negative, led by losses recorded in the Oil & Gas (-1.80%) and Banking (-1.04%) indices. Conversely, the Insurance (-0.79%), the Industrial (-0.60%), and the Consumer Goods (-0.11%) indices also closed in the red.  
• Despite the decline, market activity improved compared to the previous session, as transaction volume and value rose by 55.37% and 87.53%, respectively. CONHALLPLC (-4.75%) dominated the volume chart with 169.63mn units traded, while ZENITHBANK (+3.35%) led the value board with N6.91bn worth of deals.
• Market breadth closed negative at 0.46x, reflecting more decliners than gainers. THOMASWY (+9.80%) led the sixteen (16) gainers, while DANGSUGAR (-10.00%) led the thirty-five (35) laggards.

NASD Summary

• The NASD OTC Securities Index (NSI) and market capitalisation declined by 0.50%, closing at 3,530.72 points and N2.11trn, respectively.
• Market activity improved considerably, as transaction volume and value surged by 345.35% and 230.06%.
• SDFOODCPT (-10.67%) topped the market decliners with no advancers recorded in today’s session.