By Peter Egwuatu Nigerian Stock Exchange The bearish run on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) intensified yesterday as the coronavirus (C...
By Peter Egwuatu
The bearish run on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) intensified yesterday as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continued to ravage the economy and market performance culminating in investors losing N114 billion of their investment.
Investors had lost N16 billion on Tuesday as the stock market All Share Index (ASI) fell by 0.14 percent or 14 bases points to close at 21,300.47 points.
Consequently, the stock market yesterday declined by 0.94 percent as the ASI closed at 21,100.54 points following sell-offs in Dangote Cement (-9.9 percent), Zenith Bank (-2.6 percent) and Flour Mill (-9.9 percent).
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Consequently, Year to Date, YtD return settled at -21.4 percent while market capitalisation decreased N104.2 billion to close at N10.9 trillion.
Analysis of trading yesterday showed that activity level was mixed as volume traded fell 63.4 percent to 154.4 million units while value traded rose 2.5 percent to N1.8 billion.
The most active stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (38.7million units), Guaranty Trust Bank (22.3 million units) and FBN Holding, FBNH (14.9 million units). Leading the value chart were Zenith (N443.5million), Guaranty Trust Bank (N391.1million) and MTN Nigeria (N75.7million).
Sector performance was mixed, albeit negatively skewed as three of six indices under coverage lost while the Oil & Gas index closed flat. The AFR-ICT and Insurance indices gained 4.7 percent and 0.1 percent respectively as a result of buying interest in MTN Nigeria (9.3 percent) and WAPIC (4.0 percent).
Conversely, the Industrial Goods index led laggards, down by 2.6 percent on the back of sell-offs in Dangote Cement (-9.9 percent). Similarly, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices trailed, depreciating by 2.0 percent and 1.2 percent respectively due to losses in Zenith (-2.6 percent ), Ecobank Transnational International , ETI (-9.0 percent ), Flour Mill (-9.9 percent ) and Nigerian Breweries (-3.3 percent).
Meanwhile, investor sentiment weakened as measured by market breadth as six stocks advanced relative to 23 decliners. The best performers were MTN Nigeria (9.3 percent), International Breweries (9.2 percent) and Livestock Feeds (8.5 percent) while Unilever Nigeria (-10 percent), Dangote Cement (-9.9 percent) and Guinness Nigeria (-9.9 percent) led the laggards.
Reacting, analysts at Afrinvest Research said: “We expect the bearish sentiment to continue however, opportunities for bargain hunting exists in the equities market.”
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