Nigerian Stock Market opens negative… ASI down 2.4%

Today, the domestic equities market declined 243bps to 21,330.79 points following sell-offs in MTNN (-10.0%), ZENITH (-5.2%) and GUARANTY (-3.0%). Consequently, YTD return fell to -20.5% while market capitalisation decreased ₦276.7bn to ₦11.1tn. Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 85.7% to 466.9m units while value traded declined 42.4% to ₦1.9bn. The most active stocks by volume were MEYER (201.0m units), CHAMPION (89.3m units) and ZENITH (48.2m units) while ZENITH (₦574.4m), GUARANTY (₦283.1m) and MTNN (₦245.3m) led the value chart.  

Sector performance was largely bearish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage trended southward. The AFR-ICT index led laggards, down 5.3% following sell pressure in MTNN (-10.0%). Trailing, the Banking index fell 3.6% due to sell-offs in ZENITH (-5.2%), GUARANTY (-3.0%) and ACCESS (-5.5%). Similarly, the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices depreciated 0.9% and 0.5% respectively on the back of price declines in INTBREW (-9.3%), PRESTIGE (-8.3%) and WAPIC (-3.9%). Conversely, the Oil & Gas index led gainers, up 1.8% on account of buying interest in MOBIL (+9.8%) while the Industrial Goods index rose marginally 1bp as a result of gains in BERGER (+9.8%).

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened to 0.7x from the 3.3x recorded in the previous trading session as 11 stocks advanced relative to 15 decliners. The best performers were BERGER (+9.8%), MOBIL (+9.8%) and CADBURY (+9.7%) while MTNN (-10.0%), WEMABANK (-9.6%) and INTBREW (-9.3%) led the laggards. We expect the bearish performance to be sustained given the low oil prices and continuous spread of COVID-19 that pose as major threats for

Market Statistics for Monday, 30th March 2020