The stock market sustained the bullish rhythm in today’s session on the back of buying interest in GUARANTY (+2.1%), ZENITH (+0.9%) and INTBREW (+7.1%). Consequently, the All-Share Index advanced 14bps to close at 25,171.32 points. Also, investors gained ₦18.2bn as market capitalisation rose to ₦13.1tn while YTD loss improved to -6.2%. Activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 33.6% and 37.6% respectively to 180.0m units and ₦1.5bn. The top traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (35.9m units), ACCESS (29.1m units) and TRANSCORP (16.5m units) while ZENITH (₦605.2m), GUARANTY (₦201.3m) and ACCESS (₦187.4m) led by value.
Across all sectors that we cover, 3 indices gained, 1 lost while the AFR-ICT and Oil & Gas indices were unchanged. The Industrial Goods index was the lone loser as it dropped 4bps on account of sell-offs in CAP (-10.0%). Conversely, the Banking index recorded the strongest gain, advancing 0.8% due to buying interest in GUARANTY (+2.1%), ZENITH (+0.9%) and UBA (+0.8%). In the same vein, price appreciation in AIICO (+2.2%) and INTBREW (+7.1%) lifted the Insurance and Consumer Goods indices by 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 1.0x from the 1.2x recorded previously as 13 stocks gained relative to the 13 that declined. The top gainers were STUDPRESS (+10.0%), INTBREW (+7.1%) and JAIZBANK (+5.4%) while CAP (-10.0%), ROYALEX (-9.7%) and PZ (-9.4%) topped the laggards. We expect bargain hunting to persist in subsequent trading days.
Market Statistics for Wednesday, 19th August 2020
| Market Cap (N’bn) | 13,130.9 | 
| Market Cap (US$’bn) | 34.0 | 
| NSE All-Share Index | 25,171.32 | 
| Daily Performance % | 0.1 | 
| WTD Performance % | (0.1) | 
| MTD Performance % | 1.9 | 
| QTD Performance % | 2.8 | 
| YTD Performance % | (6.2) | 
| Daily Volume (Million) | 180.0 | 
| Daily Value (N’bn) | 1.5 | 
| Daily Value (US$’m) | 4.0 | 
