Neimeth, FTN Cocoa, Airtel top performing stock in 2020

Neimeth Pharmaceutical emerged the best performing stock in 2020 appreciating by 259.68 per cent. The stock which opened at the start of the year at 62 kobo per share rose to N2.23. According to the NSE FTN Cocoa followed closely with 230 per cent rise from 20 kobo to 66kobo. This was followed by Airtel with 184.98 per cent to end at N851.8 from N289.90. Livestock feeds rose by 178 to close at N1.9 per share from its year opening price of 50k. Other gainers are United Capital 96.25; May and Baker 81.86 per cent; FCMB 80 per cent; Vitafoam 77.27 per cent. However, the stock market posted a positive performance in today’s trade, gaining 17bps to settle at 40,465.15 points. 

The positive performance was driven by appreciation in ZENITH (+2.0%), UBA (+2.4%) and INTBREW (+2.5%). As a result, the YTD return improved to 0.5% while market capitalisation advanced by ₦36.1bn to settle at ₦21.2tn. Activity level decreased as volume and value traded fell 46.4% and 57.3% to 249.5m units and ₦2.2bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (21.9m units), MANSARD (13.3m units) and UBA (13.2m units) while GUARANTY (₦342.0m), ZENITH (₦310.4m) and STANBIC (₦306.2m) topped by value.

Performance across sectors was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage gained save the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices which closed flat. The Insurance and Oil & Gas indices topped the gainers, rising 3.0% and 0.1% respectively due to buying interest in MANSARD (+7.8%), NEM (+9.7%) and OANDO (+2.1%). Lastly, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices gained 0.8% and 0.3% respectively, buoyed by price appreciation in ZENITH (+2.0%), UBA (+2.4%) and INTBREW (+2.5%). 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.4x from the 0.4x recorded previously as 22 stocks advanced against 16 decliners. NEM (+9.7%), BOCGAS (+9.5%) and LINKASSURE (+9.3%) were the best-performing tickers while SOVRENINS (-8.3%), ETERNA (-8.2%) and DEAPCAP (-8.0%) were the losers. We expect a bullish run for the remaining days of the week.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 6th January 2021