Today, the local bourse sustained its uptrend, advancing 7bps to close at 22,554.84 points following gains in MTNN (+3.6%), NESTLE (+10.0%) and DANGCEM (+2.2%). Consequently, market capitalisation was up ₦7.8bn to settle at ₦11.8tn while YTD loss moderated to -16.0%. Activity level rose as value and volume traded climbed 30.3% and 16.1% respectively to ₦4.3bn and 379.1m units. The most active stocks by volume were ZENITH (84.6m units), FBNH (65.7m units) and EKOCORP (58.0m units) while ZENITH (₦1.3bn), NESTLE (₦877.5m) and GUARANTY (₦542.7m) led the value chart.
Sector performance was bullish as 4 of 6 indices under our coverage recorded gains. The Banking and Industrial Goods indices lost 6.3% and 2.0% respectively due to profit-taking in ZENITH (-9.8%), GUARANTY (-6.4%), BUACEMENT (-3.2%) and WAPCO (-6.6%). Conversely, the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices were the best performing indicators, up 5.7% and 1.8% respectively on the back of bargain hunting in NESTLE (+10.0%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+9.9%) and MTNN (+3.6%). Lastly, the Insurance and Oil & Gas indices advanced 1.2% and 0.3% respectively, buoyed by gains in LAWUNION (+2.0%) and CONOIL (+9.7%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) fell to 0.9x from the 2.5x recorded in the previous session as 17 stocks gained relative to the 20 that lost. The top gainers were NESTLE (+10.0%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (+9.9%) and CONOIL (+9.7%) while STERLNBANK (-10.0%), ACCESS (-10.0%) and NAHCO (-9.8%) were the top losers. We expect investors to continue to take position in fundamentally sound stocks in the near term.
Market Statistics for Thursday, 16th April 2020
| Market Cap (N’bn) | 11,754.5 |
| Market Cap (US$’bn) | 32.7 |
| NSE All-Share Index | 22,554.84 |
| Daily Performance % | 0.1 |
| WTD Performance % |
|
| MTD Performance % | 5.9 |
| QTD Performance % | 5.9 |
| YTD Performance % | (16.0) |
| Daily Volume (Million) | 379.1 |
| Daily Value (N’bn) | 4.3 |
| Daily Value (US$’m) | 12.0 |
Source: Afrinvest
