Profit-taking halts 12-day rally in the Equities Market… ASI down 95bps

Profit-taking activities dominated the stock market today, following 12 consecutive days of gains as the All-Share index inched lower by 95bps to 28,634.35 points. Sell pressures in bellwethers – MTNN (-1.5%), ZENITH (-6.0%) and GUARANTY (-1.6%) – were the key drivers of today’s performance. Investors lost ₦143.7bn as market capitalisation declined to ₦15.0tn while YTD return weakened to 6.7%. Activity level remained strong as volume and value traded rose by 11.1% and 0.4% to 832.9m units and ₦9.5bn respectively. The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (128.8m units), ZENITH (120.6m units) and UBA (84.0m units) while ZENITH (₦2.4bn), GUARANTY (₦2.4bn) and FBNH (₦789.8m) led by value.

Performance across sectors was weak as 5 of 6 indices under our coverage closed south. The Oil & Gas index was the lone gainer as sustained bargain hunting in OANDO (+2.6%) and ARDOVA (+0.4%), lifted the index by 0.2%. However, the Banking and Insurance indices depreciated the most, down 3.3% and 2.0% respectively, following profit-taking in ZENITH (-6.0%), GUARANTY (-1.5%) and CORNERSTONE (-9.1%). Likewise, profit-taking in MTNN (-1.5%), WAPCO (-4.3%) and DANGCEM (-0.1%), dragged the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices lower by 0.8% and 0.3% respectively. Lastly, the Consumer Goods index declined marginally by 0.1%, induced by sell pressures in UNILEVER (-9.9%), DANGSUGAR (-2.9%) and GUINNESS (-5.7%) 

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.7x from the 5.6x recorded in the previous session as 21 stocks gained against 31 decliners. BERGER (+9.8%), LINKASSURE (+9.8%) and NASCON (+9.6%) were top gainers while UNILEVER  (-9.9%), CORNERSTONE (-9.1%) and ETI (-8.9%) led the laggards. We expect bargain hunting in the next trading session to be driven by high liquidity and lower yields in the fixed income market amid the anticipation of  Q3:2020 corporate earnings release.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 7th October 2020 

Source: Afrinvest