Buying interest in Bellwethers drive performance… ASI up 0.8%

The domestic equities market extended yesterday’s gain as the All-Share Index (ASI) rose 77bps to close at 23,892.92 points due to buying interest in DANGCEM (+1.7%), NESTLE (+4.0%) and GUARANTY (+2.6%). Consequently, investors gained ₦84.9bn as market capitalisation improved to ₦12.4tn while YTD loss moderated to -11.0%. Activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 14.8% and 51.2% to 182.7m units and ₦2.3bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH (27.3m units), GUARANTY (24.6m units) and FBNH (18.8m units) while GUARANTY (₦540.7bn), NESTLE (₦445.2bn) and ZENITH (₦413.3bn) led the value chart.  

Performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage trended northward while the Oil & Gas index closed flat. The Consumer Goods index led gainers, up 1.5% following bargain hunting in NESTLE (+4.0%). Similarly, the Banking and Industrial Goods indices appreciated 1.4% and 0.3% respectively due to buying interest in GUARANTY (+2.6%), ZENITH (+2.0%) and DANGCEM (+1.7%). Price uptick in MTNN (+0.2%) drove the AFR-ICT index higher by 0.1%. Conversely, the Insurance index was the lone laggard, down 1.9% as a result of sell-offs in CUSTODIAN (-9.5%), NEM (-7.4%) and AIICO (-7.5%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 1.3x from the 2.5x recorded in the previous session as 18 stocks gained relative to 14 losers. The top gainers were FIDSON (+9.6%), NPFMCRFBK (+9.5%) and MAYBAKER (+5.8%) while CUSTODIAN (-9.5%), UNITYBNK (-8.3%) and AIICO (-7.5%) were top losers. We expect the domestic equities market to close the week on a bearish note.

Corporate Actions

AIICO Insurance Plc (Unaudited Q1:2020 Result): Gross premium rose 22.5% Y-o-Y to ₦17.6bn from ₦14.3bn in Q1:2019 while profit after tax surged 82.8% to ₦1.9bn from ₦1.0bn in FY:2019.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 14th May 2020 

Source: Afrinvest