Market index slides as sell-offs knocked off ₦15bn from local bourse
Market traded under fear of coronavirus as sell-offs knocked of more than N15 billion from the opening market capitalisation on Monday.
The domestic bourse opened the week negative as sell pressures in FBNH (-7.5%), WAPCO (-6.1%) and DANGSUGAR (-3.0%) pulled the All-Share Index down 12bps to 22,705.19 points.
Consequently, market capitalisation shed ₦15.1 billion to close at ₦11.8 trillion.
Activity level declined as volume and value traded fell 24.7% and 43.7% to 551.5 million units and ₦5.8 billion respectively.
Top top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY which 137.2 million units, FBNH 135.3 million units and ZENITH 133.2 million units.
GUARANTY at ₦2.6 billion, ZENITH ₦1.7 billion and FBNH ₦518.3 million were the top traded stocks by value.
Meanwhile, the sector performance was bearish as 3 of 6 indices under Afrinvest analysts coverage lost.
The Insurance index led the pack with a 1.3% gain consequent on buying interest in AIICO (+8.2%) and NEM (+4.2%).
Trailing, the Banking index rose 0.6% following price appreciation in ZENITH (+7.6%) and UBN (+10.0%).
Conversely, price decline in WAPCO (-6.1%) pulled the Industrial Goods index lower by 0.5%.
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Sell-offs in DANGSUGAR (-3.0%), NIGERIAN BREWERIES (-0.2%) and MTNN (-0.1%) dragged the Consumer Goods and AFR-ICT indices 0.5% and 0.1% lower respectively.
Though, the Oil & Gas index closed flat on Monday.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) strengthened to 1.4x from the 1.1x recorded on the previous trading day as 18 stocks gained as opposed to 13 losers.
The best performing stocks for the day were LASACO (+10.0%), COURTVILLE (+10.0%) and UPL (+10.0%) while TRANSCORP (-10.0%), JAIZBANK (-9.3%) and FBNH (-7.5%) lost the most.
“This week, we expect a mixed performance in the domestic equities market, to be driven by a risk-off sentiment and bargain hunting activities”, Afrinvest said.
Market index slides as sell-offs knocked off ₦15 bn from local bourse
