Bargain hunting drives mild gain at Stock market

Away from our expectation last week, the bulls took the market by the horn as investors hunted for bargains. Accordingly, the All-Share Index rose 10bps w/w to 38,943.87 points. Meanwhile, YTD loss remained unchanged at -3.3% and market capitalisation rose ₦11.1bn w/w to ₦20.3tn. However, trading activity slowed as average volume and value traded fell 40.0% and 17.8% w/w to 171.2m units and ₦2.2bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (75.5m units), UNIVINSURE (58.8m units), and WEMABANK (53.7m units) while NESTLE (₦2.0bn), MTNN (₦1.4bn), and ZENITH (₦726.6m) led trades by value.

Performance was strongly negative across our sector coverage this week as 5 out 6 indices closed in the red. Reversing last week’s gain, the Oil & Gas index lost 3.4% w/w due to sell-pressure on ETERNA (-9.4%) and SEPLAT (-6.5%). Trailing the biggest loser, the Banking and Insurance indices waned 0.8% and 0.6% w/w respectively on the back of sell-offs in ZENITH (-0.8%), ACCESS (-2.2%), MBENEFIT (-6.5%), and AIICO (-4.0%). In the same vein, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices lost 0.2% w/w apiece following price decline in GUINNESS (-3.2%), DANGSUGAR (-2.3%), and WAPCO (-4.0%). However, the AFR-ICT index was the only gainer, up 0.8% w/w as investors took position in MTNN (+1.4%). 

Investor sentiment waned this week, as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.6x from 0.8x in the previous week as 20 stocks gained against 36 losers. The top performing stocks for the week were UCAP (+11.3%), NNFM (+9.6%), and MORISON (+9.4%) while SCOA (-18.5%), TRANSCOHOT (-10.0%), and IKEJAHOT (-9.5%) led the laggards. In the coming week, we expect a mixed performance on the back of extended bargain hunting and weak investor sentiment.