The Bears Maintain Grip Over Equities… ASI Down 14bps

The equities market closed in the negative region today as the ASI declined 14bps to 26,188.24 points due to price depreciation in UNILEVER (-10.0%), ZENITH (-2.0%) and STANBIC (-2.1%). Consequently, YTD loss worsened to -16.7% while market capitalisation fell N20.5bn to N12.7tn. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 212.9% to 726.2m units while value traded declined 4.9% to N3.0bn. The most active stocks by volume were JAIZBANK (502.0m units), ACCESS (84.3m units) and ZENITH (52.9m units) while ZENITH (N907.3m), ACCESS (N706.0m) and WAPCO (N282.4m) led by value.  

Performance was mixed as 1 sector gained while 2 lost and 3 closed flat. The Banking index was the lone gainer, up 0.7% due to buying interest in GUARANTY (+2.9%), ACCESS (+0.6%) and UBA (+0.8%). Conversely, the Consumer Goods index led losers, declining 1.1% on the back of sell-offs in UNILEVER (-10.0%), DANGSUGAR (-3.9%) and CADBURY (-6.3%). The Insurance index also lost 3bps due to price weakness in CHIPLC (-4.9%) and LASACO (-3.7%). The AFR-ICT, Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices all closed flat in today’s session.

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) declined to 0.6x from 0.8x recorded in the previous session as 9 stocks gained against 16 decliners. The top gainers were REGALINS (+5.0%), CHAMS (+4.3%) and JAIZBANK (+3.8%) while UNILEVER (-10.0%), FIDSON (-9.7%) and UNIONDAC (-8.3%) were the top losers. We maintain our bearish outlook for equities as investors sentiment remains weak.

Market Statistics for Thursday, 7th November, 2019 

Source: Afrinvest