Nigerian Stock market reverses gain… ASI down 4bps

The benchmark index reversed yesterday’s gain after declining 4bps to close at 39,305.48 points following losses in banking stocks – GUARANTY (-0.5%), ACCESS (-1.3%) and UBA (-1.3%). Consequently, YTD loss settled at -2.4% while market capitalisation fell ₦6.8bn to ₦20.6tn. Trading activity was weak as volume and value traded fell 23.4% and 13.9% to 252.6m units and ₦1.8bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (57.2m units), TRANSCORP (30.8m units) and FIDELITYBK (29.4m units) while GUARANTY (₦496.4m), ACCESS (₦410.1m) and ZENITH (₦328.0m) led by value.

Across sectors covered, performance was positive as 4 indicators gained, the AFR-ICT index closed flat and the Banking index lost 0.6% following price declines in GUARANTY (-0.5%) and ACCESS (-1.3%). The Insurance index led gainers, up 1.0% due to price appreciation in PRESTIGE (+9.5%) and MANSARD (+1.1%). Also, the Oil & Gas index advanced 0.2% following gains in ARDOVA (+5.5%) while the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices appreciated 3bps and 2bps respectively on the back of buying interest in CHAMPION (+7.5%) and WAPCO (+0.2%).

Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio), weakened to 1.4x from the 1.5x recorded in the previous session as 23 stocks advanced against 16 decliners. PRESTIGE (+9.5%), WEMABANK (+8.8%) and ROYALEX (+7.7%) were the top gainers while CHIPLC (-9.1%), UPL (-8.6%) and CHAMS (-4.5%) were the top decliners. We expect the market to rebound in the next trading session following expected positive earnings release

Market Statistics for Tuesday, 27th April 2021