The Nigerian bourse closed yesterday on a positive note after four consecutive days of sell-offs. This was as the NSE-ASI was up by 17bps to close at 24,972.89pts. In terms of market activity levels, the total volume and value traded increased by 32.7% and 70.8% to 266.0mn units and N2.7bn respectively.
Analysing the performance by sector, three out of the five sectors under our coverage closed in the red territory. Specifically, the Industrial Goods sector ended the day flat while the Consumer Goods sector was the day’s sole gainer, up 4.4% amid price appreciation in stocks like NESTLE (+10.0%), CADBURY (+6.7%), and FLOURMILL (+4.4%).
Contrariwise, the Oil and Gas sector (-4.4%) led the losers’ camp on the back of price decline in SEPLAT (-10.0%). Similarly, the Insurance sector index (-2.9%) trended southwards amid losses in MANSARD (-9.0%) and AIICO (-8.3%).
The Banking sector index (-0.8%) joined the losers party as investors sold ETI (-1.0%), GUARANTY (-2.5%) and FBNH (-1.9%).
Overall investors sentiment was downbeat as 10 stocks advanced while 24 stocks declined, dragging the market breadth to 0.4x from 0.5x in the previous day. Looking ahead, we believe that the stock market will remain highly volatile in the interim as the realities of COVID-19 remain prevalent.
United Capital Plc Research
