Losses in Industrial Goods stocks - BUA Cement (-10.0percent), Dangote Cement (-0.8percent) and WAPCO (-7.4percent) - resulted in a 153bps dip in the benchmark index to settle at 24,479.16 points.

As a result, YTD loss worsened to -8.8percent while market capitalisation declined N198.1bn to N12.8tn.

Activity level advanced as volume and value traded rose 76.8percent and 91.9percent to 280.7m units and N3.1bn respectively.

The most active stocks by volume were FBNH (68.2m units), Nigerian Breweries (22.5m units) and Japaul Oil (17.8m units) while Nigerian Breweries (N805.4m), Dangote Cement (N612.0m) and Nestle (N369.3m) led by value.

Sectors under our coverage recorded a bearish performance as 4 of 6 indices trended southward. The Industrial Goods index led the losers following sell-offs in BUA Cement (-10.0percent), Dangote Cement (-0.8percent) and WAPCO (-7.4percent).

Trailing, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices fell 1.3percent and 0.4percent respectively as prices in Union Bank of Nigeria (-6.4percent), Guaranty Trust Bank(-1.3percent) and Oando (-4.2percent) declined. Similarly, sell-offs in MBENEFIT (-8.7percent) pulled the Insurance index down 4bps.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Goods index was the lone gainer, up 0.2percent due to price appreciation in Nigerian Breweries (+3.1percent) and Vitafoam (+5.5percent). Finally, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth weakened to 0.3x from the 0.6x recorded in the previous session as 10 stocks advanced against 34 losers.

The top gainers were Neimeth (+10.0percent), Okomu Oil (+9.9percent) and ABC Transport (+9.8percent) while Cadbury (-10.0percent), BUA Cement (-10.0percent) and Unity Bank (-9.4percent) were the top decliners.

Analyst said although profit taking was the tone of the market yesterday, they expect to see bargain hunting in subsequent trading sessions.

On the side of corporate disclosure, C & I Leasing Plc submitted its audited Full year :2019 Financial performance with the highlight indicating gross earnings rose 15.5percent y/y to settle at N32.6bn. However, PAT fell 21.6percent y/y to N939.4m from N1.2bn.

Etranzact International Plc Unaudited Q1:2020 Financial performance shows that revenue climbed 5.8percent y/y to settle at N5.9bn. Nevertheless, PAT fell 301.1percent y/y to a loss of N182.5m.

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