Bearish run continues at the Nigerian Stock market, ASI down 6bps 

Bearish sentiment persisted on the local bourse today, as the All-Share Index fell by 6bps to close at 38,233.68 points following price decline in ZENITH (-1.1%), FLOURMILL (-5.3%), and GUARANTY (-0.7%). Consequently, YTD loss worsened to -5.1% while market capitalisation declined by ₦12.1bn to settle at ₦19.9tn. Trading activity was mixed as volume traded fell by 18.8% to 203.1m units while value traded rose by 17.0% to ₦1.8bn. The most traded stocks by volume were FIDELITY (24.4m units), ZENITH (22.1m units), and MBENEFIT (16.9m units) while ZENITH (₦508.0m), GUARANTY (₦368.2m), and UACN (₦131.4m) led by value.

Across sectors under our coverage, performance was mixed as 2 indices lost, 1 gained, while 3 closed flat. The Banking and Consumer Goods lost 0.4% and 8bps respectively, following sell-offs in ZENITH (-1.1%), GUARANTY (-0.7%), FLOURMILL (-5.3%), and DANGSUGAR (-0.3%). Conversely, the Insurance index emerged as the lone gainer, up by 1.2% due to price appreciation in LASACO (+9.1%) and MANSARD (+1.2%). However, the Oil & Gas, Industrial Goods, and AFRI-ICT indices closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), strengthened to 1.4x from 0.6x in the last trading session as 20 stocks advanced while 14 declined. JOHNHOLT (+9.6%), VITAFOAM (+9.2%) and LASACO (+9.1%) led gainers while FTNCOCOA (-7.3%), NPFMCRFBK (-5.6%) and FLOURMILL (-5.3%) led decliners. We expect the market to remain bearish in the next trading session due to the absence of a positive catalyst.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 26th May 2021