Stock market beats COVID-19 fear, gains N20.9 billion
There was a bullish run in the stock market today amid rising coronavirus cases. Equities appreciated N20.9 billion, thus pushed market capitalisation to N11.329 trillion.
The market trend is strong on the back of 9.5% gains in NPFMCRFB, 9.4% in STANBIC and 8.9% in TRANSCORP.
These gains recorded pushed the All-Share Index up 19 basis points (bps) to 21,741.16 points. Consequently, year to date returns eased to -19.0%.
Meanwhile, the activity level waned as volume and value traded fell 28.9% and 7.7% to 330.1 million units and ₦3.6 billion respectively.
The most active stocks by volume were GUARANTY (78.9m units), ZENITH (77.9m units) and ACCESS (36.0m units) while GUARANTY (₦1.3bn), ZENITH (₦852.9m) and NESTLE (₦484.6m) led by value.
Sector performance was mixed as 3 of 6 indices under analysts at Afrinvest coverage gained.
Also, the Oil & Gas index led the gainers, up 0.3% due to price appreciation in OANDO (+7.0%).
Similarly, the Insurance and Industrial Goods indices inched higher by 12bps and 2bps respectively due to gains in WAPIC (+4.8%) and CAP (+2.4%).
Read Also: Treatments for COVID-19: Drugs being tested against coronavirus
On the flip side, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices declined 33bps and 24bps respectively due to sell-offs in ETI (-9.0%), UBN (-7.7%), NASCON (-9.6%) and CADBURY (-8.9%).
Finally, the AFR-ICT index closed flat.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 1.8x from the 0.4x recorded in the previous trading session as 18 stocks advanced relative to 10 decliners.
The best performers were NPFMCRFBK (+9.5%), STANBIC (+9.4%) and TRANSCORP (+8.9%) while CAVERTON (-10.0%), CONOIL (-9.9%) and NASCON (-9.6%) led the laggards.
“We are not optimistic of a positive trend in the market as the COVID-19 continues to spread in the country”, Afrinvest stated.
Stock market beats COVID-19 fear, gains N20.9 billion
