Stock Market Opens Negative amidst Rising Headline Inflation Rate
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) opens the week negative amidst rising headline inflation rate according to data.
Market data shows that investors’ fortune declined as July headline inflation rate spikes to 12.82% from 12.56% in June, 2020.
In today’s session, the domestic market recorded a bearish opening due to sell-pressure in bellwethers such as MTNN (-1.0%), DANGCEM (-0.7%) and FLOURMIL (-7.1%).
Consequently, the All-Share Index dropped 27 basis points (bps) to settle at 25,132.67 points.
Furthermore, market capitalisation fell to ₦13.1 trillion as investors lost ₦35.0 billion while year to date loss worsened to -6.4%.
Afrinvest said sctivity level waned as volume and value traded fell 65.9% and 57.9% respectively to 258.1m units and ₦1.7bn.
The top traded stocks by volume were GUARANTY which transacted 19 million units, ZENITH traded 18.6 million units and STERLING did 14.3 million units.
GUARANTY transaction was valued at ₦472.2 million, DANGCEM ₦437.3 million and ZENITH did ₦311.5 million led by value.
Performance across sectors was mixed as 3 of the 6 indices that we cover gained, Afrinvest said.
The AFR-ICT index lost 52bps to lead the losers, following sell-offs in MTNN (-1.0%).
Similarly, the Industrial Goods and Banking indices trailed with 0.4% and 0.2% respective declines, driven by sell-offs in DANGCEM (-0.7%), ACCESS (-0.8%) and GUARANTY (-0.2%).
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On the flip side, the Insurance index recorded the best performance, advancing 2.9% on the back of buying interest in MANSARD (+9.4%) and CORNERSTONE (+8.2%).
Similarly, the Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices closed in the green, advancing 0.5% and 0.2% respectively, buoyed by buying interest in ARDOVA (+9.4%), JAPAULOIL (+5.0%), UNILEVER (+10.0%) and DANGSUGAR (+3.4%).
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) rose to 1.1x from the 0.5x recorded previously as 17 stocks gained against the 15 that declined.
The top gainers were UNILEVER (+10.0%), NNFM (+9.8%) and JBERGER (+9.6%) while LIVESTOCK (-8.3%), VITAFOAM (-5.2%) and INTBREW (-3.5%) lost the most.
“Given the sell-offs that dominated today’s trading session, we anticipate bargain hunting in subsequent trading days”, Afrinvest said.
Stock Market Opens Negative amidst Rising Headline Inflation Rate
