By Peter Egwuatu

The equity market started the trading week lower on Monday as the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE All Index, ASI shed 0.06 percent to extend downtrend to two consecutive trading days.

Nigerian Stock Exchange NSE

Specifically, market breadth closed negative, recording 21 gainers against 25 losers, with the ASI down by 20.25 absolute points, representing a dip of 0.06 percent, closing at 36,479.42 points. Similarly, the market capitalisation decreased by N7.39 billion, representing a dip of 0.06 percent, closing at N13.32 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalized stocks, amongst which are; Dangote Flour Mills (-7.78 percent ), Honeywell Flour Mills  (-6.59 percent ), Flour Mills Nigeria (-5.38 percent), OKOMUOIL (-3.82 percent ), Cadbury Nigeria (-2.56 percent ),  Nigerian Breweries, NB (-2.04 percent), First Bank Nigeria, FBNH (-1.00 percent ), Transcorp  (-0.83 percent ), Dangote Cement (-0.44 percent ) and Guaranty Trust Bank (-0.12 percent).

The Consumer Goods (-0.93 percent) Index was the sole loser among the major sector Indices, owing largely to a selloff of NB (-2.04 percent) shares. Conversely, the Industrial Goods (+2.00 percent), Insurance (+1.03 percent), Banking (+0.86 percent), and Oil & Gas (+0.42 percent) Indices posted positive returns, following interest in the shares of WAPCO (+8.93 percent), MANSARD Insurance (+4.17 percent ),  Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, ETI (+4.27 percent ), and Forte Oil,  FO (+0.64 percent ), respectively.

Reacting, Cordros Capital, a Lagos based Investment firm said: “In our view, selloffs are likely to persist in the near-to-medium term, in the absence of a near-term one-off positive catalyst. However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery on the long term.

Analysts at Afrinvest Research stated: “However, we expect a rebound in the near term as investors react to first half, H1’18 earnings as noticed in late trading hours today,(Monday) .”