Nigerian Stock Market opens Week negative, investors lost N9.4bn

The equities market opened the week bearish as the All-Share Index lost 7bps due to sell-offs in ZENITH (-0.6%), ACCESS (-1.0%) and OANDO (-0.4%), to close at 24,269.58 points. Consequently, market capitalisation declined to ₦12.7tn as investors lost ₦9.4bn while YTD loss worsened to -9.6%. Activity level improved as volume and value traded increased by 90.1% and 42.6% to 305.1m units and ₦2.1bn respectively. The most active stocks by volume were SOVRENINS (75.6m units), UBA (70.7m units) and GUARANTY (37.0m units) while GUARANTY (₦795.1m), UBA (₦444.9m) and NIGERIAN BREWERIES (₦230.9m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was bearish as 2 of 6 indices under our coverage closed negative. The Banking and Industrial Goods indices recorded the worst performance, shedding 0.5% and 1bps respectively owing to sell-pressures in  ZENITH (-0.6%), ACCESS (-1.0%) and CUTIX(-0.2%). Conversely, gains in ARDOVA (+7.2%) and LINKASSURE (+9.4%) pushed the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices higher by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively. However, the AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indices closed the trading session flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) rose to 0.9x from the 0.6x recorded in the previous session as 12 stocks advanced against the 13 that declined. The top gainers were GLAXOSMITH (+9.5%), FIDSON (+9.4%) and LINKASSURE (+9.4%) while NEIMETH (-10.0%), CUTIX (-9.9%) and CHAMS (-4.3%) were the top decliners. We expect bargain hunting to drive gains in the next trading session.

Market Statistics for Monday, 20th July 2020

Source: Afrinvest