Gains persist in Nigerian Stock market… ASI up 14bps

The stock market sustained the bullish rhythm in today’s session on the back of buying interest in GUARANTY (+2.1%), ZENITH (+0.9%) and INTBREW (+7.1%). Consequently, the All-Share Index advanced 14bps to close at 25,171.32 points. Also, investors gained ₦18.2bn as market capitalisation rose to ₦13.1tn while YTD loss improved to -6.2%. Activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 33.6% and 37.6% respectively to 180.0m units and ₦1.5bn. The top traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (35.9m units), ACCESS (29.1m units) and TRANSCORP (16.5m units) while ZENITH (₦605.2m), GUARANTY (₦201.3m) and  ACCESS (₦187.4m) led by value.

Across all sectors that we cover, 3 indices gained, 1 lost while the AFR-ICT and Oil & Gas indices were unchanged. The Industrial Goods index was the lone loser as it dropped 4bps on account of sell-offs in CAP (-10.0%). Conversely, the Banking index recorded the strongest gain, advancing 0.8% due to buying interest in  GUARANTY (+2.1%), ZENITH (+0.9%) and UBA (+0.8%). In the same vein, price appreciation in AIICO (+2.2%) and INTBREW (+7.1%) lifted the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively. 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 1.0x from the 1.2x recorded previously as 13 stocks gained relative to the 13 that declined. The top gainers were STUDPRESS (+10.0%), INTBREW (+7.1%) and JAIZBANK (+5.4%) while CAP (-10.0%), ROYALEX (-9.7%) and PZ (-9.4%) topped the laggards. We expect bargain hunting to persist in subsequent trading days.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 19th August 2020