Equities Market records slight loss… ASI down 1bp

At the end of trade today, the equities market recorded a moderate loss of 1bp to close at 24,276.56 due to sell-offs in INTBREW (-8.9%), FBNH (-0.9%) and ACCESS (-0.8%). This resulted in a total loss of ₦786.7m for investors as market capitalisation settled lower at ₦12.7tn with YTD loss closed at -9.6%. Activity level weakened as volume and value traded dived 17.4% and 47.4% to 192.1m units and ₦2.5bn respectively. FIDELITY (38.1m units), GUARANTY (23.6m units) and ZENITH (23.1m units) were the top traded by volume while GUARANTY (₦534.5m), ZENITH (₦384.5m) and MTNN (₦374.5m) led by value.

Across the 6 indices that we track, 3 advanced,  2 lost while the AFR-ICT remained unchanged. The Insurance and Banking indices were the best performers as both gained 0.6% each following price appreciation in AIICO (+3.3%), GUARANTY (+1.1%) and ZENITH (+0.6%). Meanwhile, gain in BUACEMENT (+0.1%) pushed the Industrial Goods index higher by 0.2%. Conversely, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices lost 0.6% and 0.4% respectively due to sell-pressures in INTBREW (-8.9%), DANGSUGAR (-0.9%) and CONOIL (-10.0%). 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.7x from the 3.1x recorded in the previous session as 10 stocks advanced against the 15 decliners. The top gainers were LAWUNION (+7.0%), HONYFLOUR (+6.6%) and STERLNBA (+5.8%) while CONOIL (-10.0%), ARBICO (-9.5%) and VITAFOAM (-9.3%) were the top decliners. We expect the week to close bearish on the back profit taking in the next trading session.

Corporate action/disclosure

Conoil Plc declares a final dividend of ₦2.0 per 50 kobo ordinary share  subject to appropriate withholding tax.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 9th July 2020 

Source: Afrinvest