Bears tighten hold, investors lost N37.8bn

The Nigerian stock market extended losses today as the benchmark index trod south by 28bps to settle at 25,424.91 points owing to sell-offs in ZENITH (-3.0%), ACCESS (-3.0%) and UBA (-3.2%). Consequently, investors lost ₦37.8bn as market capitalisation fell to ₦13.3tn while YTD loss worsened to -5.3%. Activity level improved as volume and value traded climbed 8.4% and 42.4% respectively to 269.6m units and ₦2.9bn. The most traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (35.8m units), FBNH (33.4m units) and UBA (29.8m units) while GUARANTY (₦605.1m), ZENITH (₦592.1m) and MTNN (₦526.7m) led by value.

Sector performance was unimpressive as 4 of the 6 indicators that we track lost, 1 gained while AFR-ICT remained unchanged. The Industrial Goods index was the lone gainer, up 0.1% on the back of price appreciation in WAPCO (+0.8%). Conversely, the Banking and Insurance indices lost 1.5% and 0.4% respectively, driven by sell-offs in  ZENITH (-3.0%), ACCESS (-3.0%) and WAPIC (-2.9%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indices fell 0.2% and 0.1% respectively on the back of sell pressures in VITAFOAM (-4.7%), HONYFLOUR (-4.3%) and OANDO (-1.3%). 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.3x from the 0.5x recorded previously as 7 stocks gained against the 23 that lost. The top gainers were FIDSON (+7.3%), PZ (+6.3%) and CUSTODIAN (+3.1%) while ROYALEX (-10.0%), LIVESTOCK (-9.1%) and CILEASING (-9.0%) lost the most. We expect investors to take positions in fundamentally sound stocks in subsequent trading session. Nevertheless, we expect the equities market to close the week in favour of the bears.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 9th September 2020 

Source: Afrinvest