Nigerian Equities market opens week negative… ASI down 44bps

Trading activities at the local bourse started the week bearish as the benchmark index moderated 44bps to close at 24,200.60 following sell-offs in MTNN (-1.0%), ZENITH (-3.0%) and GUARANTY (-2.0%). As a result, investors lost ₦55.2bn as market capitalisation fell ₦12.6tn while YTD loss worsened -9.8%. Activity level strengthened as volume and value traded rose 75.7% and 139.6% to 231.2m units and ₦2.2bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were STERLING (77.5m units), FCMB (33.3m units) and FIDELITY (27.1m units) while MTNN (₦1.1bn), GUARANTY (₦215.0m) and ZENITH (₦139.5m) led by value.

Across the 6 sectors under our coverage, 4 indices declined, 1 gained while the Consumer Goods index closed flat. The Industrial Goods index was the lone gainer, appreciating 0.3% due to buying interest in BUACEMENT (+0.6%) and CUTIX (+1.1%). Conversely, losses in MOBIL (-10.0%), ZENITH (-3.0%) and GUARANTY (-2.0%) dragged the Oil & Gas and Banking indices lower by 1.9% and 1.7% respectively. Meanwhile sell pressures in MTNN (-1.0%), CHAMS (-8.3%) and WAPIC (-5.7%) drove declines in the AFR-ICT and Insurance indices respectively.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.8x from the 1.4x recorded in the previous session as 14 stocks advanced against the 17 decliners. The top gainers were NPFMCRFBK (+10.0%), NEIMETH (+9.4%) and LINKASSURE (+8.5%) while MOBIL (-10.0%), CHAMS (-8.3%) and ETERNA (-6.7%) led the laggards. We expect bargain hunting activity to resurface this week given that the equities market remains fairly attractive.

Market Statistics for Monday, 13th July 2020 

Source: Afrinvest