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NSE records year's lowest volume, ASI down 28bps

What shaped the market today?

• The NSE ASI trended lower for the third consecutive session amidst cautious trading (lowest volume thus far this year) with key sectors closing in the red. On the global scene, European markets closed lower whilst most Asian markets advanced amidst a slew of economic data from China (notably, Q3 GDP grew 6.7% just in line with expectations). U.S. futures pointed to a flat open ahead of another influx of earnings reports.
• The Oil & Gas sector (-278bps) continued to lead market declines following losses in FO (-767bps), TOTAL (-460bps) and OANDO (-137bps). The Consumer Goods (-19bps) and Financial Services (-12bps) sectors posted softer losses with declines recorded across INTERBREW (-495bps), CADBURY (-233bps), WEMABANK (-317bps) and FCMB (-268bps). The Industrial Goods sector (+28bps) however posted another positive close on the back of advances in CAP (+150bps) and sustained gains in WAPCO (+70bps).
• Market breadth remained negative with 13 advances and 24 declines.

What will shape the nexttrading session?

• Given the traditionally high market trades during earnings season, we find today’s extraordinarily low market volume quite surprising; Monday’s volume was also significantly low. This suggests that investors maintain a wait-and-see approach this season, hence, we expect the recent bearish trend to persist.