Nigerian Stock market opens on a negative note… ASI down 0.3%

At the close of trade today, the domestic equities market sustained its downward performance from last week as the benchmark index declined 29bps to close at 24,753.92 points due to sell-offs in BUACEMENT (-2.3%), STANBIC (-8.3%) and DANGSUGAR (-7.7%). As a result, market capitalisation declined ₦38.0bn to settle at ₦12.9tn while YTD loss worsened to -7.8%. Activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 28.6% and 34.4% to 124.7m units and ₦1.3bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were JAPAULOIL (13.6m units), GUARANTY (11.3m units) and ZENITH (10.4m units) while GUARANTY (₦260.5m), OKOMUOIL (₦188.4m) and NESTLE (₦180.4m) led by value.

Across sectors, performance was bearish as 4 of the 6 indices under our coverage closed southward. The Industrial Goods and Insurance indices led laggards, down 1.5% and 0.9% respectively due to sell-offs in BUACEMENT (-2.3%), CUTIX (-9.1%), LAWUNION (-4.7%) and AIICO (-3.0%). Similarly, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices declined 0.6% and 0.5% respectively following profit-taking in STANBIC (-8.3%), GUARANTY (-1.7%), ARDOVA (-5.1%) and OANDO (-2.0%). Conversely, the Consumer Goods index was the lone gainer, up 2.1% owing to price appreciation in NESTLE (+7.7%). Lastly, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) decreased to 0.4x from the 0.6x recorded in the previous session as 11 stocks advanced against 26 decliners. The best performing stocks were JAPAULOIL (+8.7%), NESTLE (+7.7%) and FIDSON (+7.5%) while NEIMETH (-9.7%), CUTIX (-9.1%) and STANBIC (-8.3%) lost the most. Whilst today’s performance was mainly dragged by profit-taking in some stocks, we expect a mixed performance during the week.

Market Statistics for Monday, 22nd June 2020 

Source: Afrinvest