Nigerian Stock Market sustained losses, ASI down 63bps 

The domestic bourse maintained bearish momentum for the third consecutive session as the benchmark index declined 63bps to 40,212.19 points on the back of sell-offs in MTNN (-0.9%), ZENITH (-3.6%), and GUARANTY (-1.9%). Consequently, the YTD return turned negative at -0.1% while market capitalisation fell by ₦132.4bn to settle at ₦21.0tn. Activity level rebounded as volume and value traded improved 74.6% and 79.0% respectively to 426.3m units and ₦4.8bn. The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (129.8m units), ZENITH (37.7m units) and DANGSUGAR (37.1m units) while GUARANTY (₦1.1bn), FBNH (₦949.3m) and ZENITH (₦912.0m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was poor as all indices under our coverage declined. The Banking and Insurance indices lost the most, down 2.6% and 1.5% respectively due to declines in ZENITH (-3.6%), GUARANTY (-1.9%) and MANSARD (-3.3%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices inched lower by 0.5% apiece as a result of losses in DANGSUGAR (-2.9%) and MTNN (-0.9%). The Oil & Gas and Industrial Goods indices also declined 0.2% and 0.1% respectively as OANDO (-2.6%) and WAPCO (1.7%) ticked lower. 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.3x from the 0.8x recorded previously as 10 stocks gained against 30 losers. RTBRISCOE (+10.0%), CORNERST (+8.5%) and ROYALEX (+8.0%) were the top gainers while UPL (-9.1%), CHAMS (-8.3%) and UPDCREIT (-7.8%) were the top losers. We expect the market to close the week on a negative note due to sustained losses.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 18th February 2021