Shares prices at Nigerian Stock Market further by 2.9 as fear of COVID-19 rises

Shares on Nigerian market fell by 2.94% to their lowest level in more than eight years as the number of coronavirus cases in Nigeria rose. The stock index fell to 22,078 points to a level last seen in July 2012. The index of Nigeria’s top 10 banks, the most liquid sector, fell 7.75% to lead the decliners. The market returned to the negative zone as the All-Share Index declined 2.9% to 22,118.90 points due to price depreciation in MTNN, NESTLE and ZENITH. Consequently, YTD return worsened to -17.6% while market capitalisation declined ₦350.0 billion to ₦11.5 trillion. Activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 21.7% and 55.2% to 525.9m units and ₦4.7bn in that order. The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH (118.5m units), WAPIC (100.4m units) and GUARANTY (100.7m units) while GUARANTY (₦1.8bn), ZENITH (₦1.4bn) and NESTLE (₦513.0m) led by value.  

Sector performance was bearish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage trended southward. The Banking and AFR-ICT indices led laggards, down 7.7% and 2.6% respectively, due to sell pressures in ZENITH (-10.0%), GUARANTY (-0.1%) and MTNN (-4.9%). Trailing, the Industrial and Consumer Goods indices depreciated 1.4% and 1.0% following losses in WAPCO (-6.5%), DANGCEM (-4.4%) and NESTLE (-3.4%). Conversely, the Insurance index was the lone gainer, up 1.1% due to price upticks in CORNERSTONE (+0.1%) and NEM (+0.1%) while the Oil & Gas index closed flat.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.6x from the 1.4x recorded in the previous trading session as 13 stocks advanced relative to 22 decliners. The best performers were AFRIPRUD (+9.9%), JAIZBANK (+9.8%) and CORNERSTONE (+9.4%) while UCAP (-10.0%), ZENITH (-10.0%) and ARBICO (-9.8%) led the laggards. We expect the bearish trend to persist given the current global pandemic. However, we note that there are opportunities for bargain hunting.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 19th March 2020