Retail investors’ shedding MTN, ETI, Access shares drag market index

As school opens for 2020 and parents are raising funds to pay school fees and buy books, retail investors are selling off their shareholdings to meet their financial obligation to their wards. As a result the broad index of the Nigerian Stock market shed 0.8 per cent to 29,062.50 points in today’s trading session following sell-offs in MTNN (-3.0%), ETI (-7.7%) and ACCESS (-2.9%). Consequently, investors lost ₦113.8 billion as market capitalisation declined to ₦15.0tn while YTD return slipped to 8.3%. Activity level dipped as volume and value traded pared 46.0% and 56.5% to 360.1m units and ₦2.8bn respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were MORISON (126.8m units), ACCESS (52.5m units) and UBA (32.0m units) while ZENITH (₦674.0m), ACCESS (₦536.6m) and BUACEMENT (₦444.2m) led by value.

The bearish sector performance continued as all indices under our coverage lost save the Insurance index which gained 0.3% due to buying interest in CHIPLC (+2.6%). Price declines in MTNN (-3.0%) and MEYER (-8.0%) pulled the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices down 1.7% and 1.3% respectively. Similarly, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices pared 0.2% apiece following losses in ETI (-7.7%), DANGSUGAR (-2.0%) and INTBREW (-1.1%). Also, the Oil & Gas index shed 0.1% as investors sold-off OANDO (-4.0%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) remained flat at 0.6x as 11 stocks gained relative to 17 losers. The top gainers were BETAGLAS (+10.0%), CORNERST (+9.4%) and GLAXOSMITH (+7.1%) while LIVESTOCK (-9.1%), SOVRENINS (-9.1%) and MEYER (-8.0%) were the top losers. Although today’s performance was negative, we expect a better performance in successive sessions due to bargain hunting.

Market Statistics for Wednesday, 15th January 2020 

Source: Afrinvest