Equity market cap drops to ₦11.11 trillion amidst COVID-19 fear
On Monday, the value of listed equities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange declined 243 basis points to 21,330.79 points following sell-offs in MTNN (-10.0%), ZENITH (-5.2%) and GUARANTY (-3.0%).
Consequently, year to date losses widened to 20.5% due to decrease in market capitalisation by ₦276.7 billion to ₦11.11 trillion.
Activity level was mixed as volume traded rose 85.7% to 466.9 million units while value traded declined 42.4% to ₦1.9 billion.
The most active stocks by volume traded were MEYER (201.0 million units), CHAMPION (89.3 million units) and ZENITH (48.2 million units).
ZENITH (₦574.4 million), GUARANTY (₦283.1 million) and MTNN (₦245.3 million) led the value chart.
Afrinvest said sector performance was largely bearish as 4 of 6 indices under its analysts’ coverage trended southward.
Meanwhile, 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 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 investors”, Afrinvest said.
Equity market cap drops to ₦11.11 trillion amidst COVID-19 fear
