Nigerian stock market closes flat again… ASI unchanged

The domestic equities market closed today’s trading session flat as the benchmark index stood at 28,344.04 points while market capitalisation and YTD return remained unchanged at ₦14.8tn and 5.6% respectively. Activity level rose as average volume and value traded improved by 56.7% and 60.1% to 342.2m units and ₦5.0bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were UBA (92.9m units), ZENITH (67.2m units) and GUARANTY (67.2m units) while GUARANTY (₦1.8bn), ZENITH (₦1.4bn) and UBA (₦613.6m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was mixed as 2 of 6 indices under our coverage closed southwards, 2 gained while 2 closed flat. The Banking and Insurance indices were the underperformers, down 0.7% and 0.4% respectively following losses in ACCESS (-1.3%), GUARANTY (-1.7%) and AIICO (-3.6%). On the flip side, gains in GUINNESS (+3.0%), INTBREW (+3.2%) and WAPCO (+4.0%) buoyed the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices higher by 0.4% and 0.3% respectively. Lastly, the Oil & Gas and AFR-ICT indices closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 1.0x from the 1.3x recorded previously as 13 stocks gained against the 12 that declined. ETERNA (+9.8%), WAPCO (+7.4%) and GUINNESS (+5.8%) were top gainers while AIICO (-9.9%), GLAXOSMITH (-5.2%) and FIDSON (-4.8%) led the underperformers. We expect the local bourse to close the week in the negative territory.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 15th September 2020 

Source: Afrinvest