Stock market records 20.65% negative return in first quarter
The Nigerian Stock Exchange year to date return settled at 20.65% negative at the end of the first quarter in 2020 amidst rising cases of coronavirus fear.
On the last trading day in the first quarter, market cap settled at ₦11.10 trillion due to N15.8 billion loss in equities value
The All Share Index closed at 21,300.47 points.
On Tuesday, volume traded decreased by 28.91% to close at 422,004,923 while the total value of stock traded decreased by 7.67% to close at 1.72 billion in 3,448 deals.
Price declines in ZENITH (-2.1%), GUARANTY (-1.1%) and ACCESS (-1.7%) dragged market down.
The most active stocks by volume were STERLING which traded 303.6 million units, ZENITH 29.7 million units and GUARANTY 16.9 million units.
In terms of value, ZENITH traded ₦350.4 million, STERLING ₦348.7 million and GUARANTY ₦301.2 million led the value chart.
The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices posted gains, up 1.6% and 0.5% respectively due to 9.5% price appreciation in NEM, 3.5% in CORNERSTONE, 4.8% in UNILEVER and 2.2% in FLOURMILL.
Conversely, the Banking and Industrial Goods indices depreciated 1.1% and 0.1% respectively following losses in ZENITH (-2.1%), GUARANTY (-1.1%) and WAPCO (-1.1%).
Meanwhile, the Oil & Gas and AFR-ICT indices closed flat.
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth strengthened to 0.8x from the 0.7x recorded in the previous trading session as 9 stocks advanced relative to 11 decliners.
The best performers were GLAXOSMITH (+10.0%), MAYBAYER (+9.7%) and NEM (+9.5%) while JAIZBANK (-9.4%), IKEJAHOTEL (-9.1%) and COURTVILLE (-4.8%) led the laggards.
“We expect the bearish sentiment to continue however, there exist bargain hunting opportunities in the equities market”, Afrinvest said.
Stock market records 20.65% negative return in first quarter
