The equities market extended the negative trend that has persisted since the start of the week to Wednesday’s session, despite increases in volume and value of transactions. At the close of trading, the bourse benchmark index lost 0.3 percent to close at 32,302.32 points while year-to-date (YTD) return retreated to 20.2 percent. Consequently, N36.7bn was lost in the value of stocks as market capitalization settled at N11.1 trillion. The continuous decline in market performance as seen in previous sessions, according to analysts, presents an opportunity for bargain hunters to take advantage of badly beaten stocks. Analysts at Afrinvest are anticipating a rebound in the equities market in subsequent trading sessions this week. Wednesday’s bearish performance was attributed to declines in ETI (-4.0%), UNILEVER (-4.9%) and FLOURMILL (-9.7%) but activity level improved as volume and value of transactions rose 51.0% and 74.8% to close at 311.4 million units and N3.0 billion respectively. Sector performance poor reflecting the broader index as all indices closed in the red save for the industrial goods index, which marginally added two basis points (bps) on account of price uptick in BERGER (+4.5%). The consumer goods index led the losers’ chart, down 0.9% as investors reacted negatively to FLOURMILL’s (-9.7%) FY:2017 earnings scorecard and sold off on UNILEVER (-4.9%). Flourmill released its FY:2017 financial result yesterday; revenue grew 53.1 percent from N342.6 billion in FY:2016 to N524.5 billion in FY:2017 whilst PAT declined 38.7% from N14.4 billion in FY:2016 to N8.8 billion in FY:2017.

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The banking index trailed with 0.3 percent loss on the back of losses in ACCESS (-1.3%) and FIDELITY (-4.7%) while the Oil & Gas index fell 0.2 percent due to the persistent decline in MOBIL (-0.4%). Similarly, the Insurance index lost four basis points on account of depreciation in AIICO (-4.8%). Market breadth came in higher, albeit negative as the ratio of advancers to decliners settled at 0.4x (11 gainers against 32 losers). UNITY (+9.8%), FIDSON (+4.8%) and BERGER (+4.5%) led the gainers chart while FLOURMILL (-9.7%), NEIMETH (-8.0%) and TRANSCORP (-6.5%) led the laggards. In the NASD OTC exchange, two counters traded with total volume and value of transactions closing at 46,026 thousand units and N2.6m respectively. CSCS (+0.2%) closed in the green while WAMCO (-9.2%) closed in the red.