Equities Market reverses gains… ASI Sheds 83bps 

Today, sell-offs in GUARANTY (-5.3%), DANGCEM (-1.1%) and ACCESS (-6.5%) ended the successive gains in the equities market  as the All-Share Index slipped 0.8% to 29,462.76 points. Consequently, YTD return fell to 9.8% while market capitalisation declined ₦127.6bn to ₦15.2tn. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 2.2% to 272.8m units while value traded fell 11.9% to ₦3.7bn. ZENITH (57.8m units), ACCESS (33.0m units) and UBA (22.4m units) led the most traded stocks by volume while  ZENITH (₦1.3bn), DANGCEM (₦414.0m) and MTNN (₦351.2m) led by value.

Despite sell-offs, sector performance remained bullish as 4 of 6 sectors under our coverage gained. The Insurance (+0.7%) and Consumer Goods (+0.3%) indices led gainers, riding on the back of price appreciation in MANSARD (+1.4%), LAWUNION (+9.1%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+1.8%) and HONEYFLOUR (+4.9%). Similarly, gains were recorded in the Oil & Gas (+0.3%) and AFR-ICT (+0.1%) indices, due to buying interest in OANDO (+2.3%) and MTNN (+0.2%). Conversely, price declines in GUARANTY (-5.3%), ACCESS (-6.5%), ZENITH (-1.8%) and DANGCEM (-1.1%) drove the Banking (-3.6%) and Industrial Goods (-0.5%) indices southward.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.9x from the 1.8x recorded in the previous session as 15 stocks advanced against 16 decliners. LAWUNION (+9.1%), UNITYBNK (+6.2%) and WAPCO (+6.1%) topped the gainers while ARBICO (-10.0%), ETERNA (-9.7%) and CHAMPION (-7.1%) led the losers. We expect performance in the market to remain mixed in the near term. However, there are still opportunities for bargain hunting.

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 21st January 2020 

Source: Afrinvest