Price declines in Zenith, ETI, Flourmill dragged performance at Nigerian Stock Exchange

Price declines in ZENITH, ETI and FLOURMILL dragged performance in the Nigerian Stock market. Consequently, the benchmark index declined 5bps to 38,704.97 points, YTD loss worsened to -3.9% and market capitalisation declined ₦9.4 billion to ₦20.3 trillion. Trading activity improved as volume and value increased 48.0% and 96.0% respectively to 410.4m units and ₦6.0 billion. The most traded stocks by volume were DANGSUGAR (107.1m units), UBN (78.5m units) and TRANSCORP (31.6m units) while DANGSUGAR (₦1.8bn), GUARANTY (₦832.3m) and STANBIC (₦499.8m) led by value.

Across sectors that we cover, performance was bullish as 4 indicators gained. The Insurance index led the gainers, up 0.6% following price uptick in WAPIC (+10.0%) and MANSARD (+1.0%). Also, the Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices appreciated 0.3% and 0.1% respectively on the back of gains in OANDO (+1.6%) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+2.1%). Buying interest in MTNN (+0.1%) drove a 6bps gain in the AFR-ICT index. On the flip side, sell-offs in ZENITH (-2.2%) and ETI (-5.9%) pushed the Banking banking index lower by 0.7%. Lastly, the Industrial Goods index closed flat.

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), weakened to 1.0x from the 3.3x recorded previously as 19 stocks gained against 20 decliners. WAPIC (+10.0%), CAP (+10.0%) and NPFMCRFBK (+9.9%) were the top gainers while LIVESTOCK (-9.5%), CHAMS (-8.7%) and CORNERST (-6.7%) were the top decliners. We expect a mix of bargain-hunting and profit-taking in the local bourse in subsequent trading sessions.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 23rd March 2021