Bargain hunting boost Equities Market… ASI up 0.1%

The domestic equities market closed on a positive note as the All-Share Index marginally rose 10bps to 21,121.20 points due to bargain hunting in DANGCEM (+9.9%), LIVESTOCK (+9.4%) and GLAXOSMITH (+9.1%). Consequently, YTD return eased to -21.3% while market capitalisation increased ₦10.8bn to ₦11.0tn. Activity level improved as volume and value traded rose 65.6% and 62.1% to 255.5m units and ₦2.9bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH (100.8m units), GUARANTY (34.2m units) and FBNH (29.0m units) while ZENITH (₦1.1bn), GUARANTY (₦596.0m) and DANGCEM (₦298.2m) led the value chart.  

Across sectors, performance was bearish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage lost while the Oil & Gas index closed flat. The AFR-ICT and Banking indices lost 3.0% and 2.2% respectively on account of sell-offs in MTNN (-5.7%), FBNH (-5.1%), ACCESS (-4.4%) and ETI (-3.7%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices trailed, depreciating 1.9% and 0.8% respectively due to losses in NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-9.3%), HONYFLOUR (-8.2%), WAPIC (-3.9%) and CORNERSTONE (-3.3%). Conversely, the Industrial Goods index emerge the lone gainer, up 2.4% following gains in DANGCEM (+9.9%). 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 0.4x from the 0.2x recorded in the previous trading session as 7 stocks advanced relative to 19 decliners. The best performers were DANGCEM (+9.9%), LIVESTOCK (+9.4%) and GLAXOSMITH (+9.1%) while NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-9.3%), HONYFLOUR (-8.2%) and INTBREW (-6.5%) led the laggards. Despite today’s positive performance, we expect the equities market to close the week on a bearish note as the economy reels from the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 2nd April 2020