The last four trading sessions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange ended with marginal gains, and this trend continued on the first trading session of the week, as the NSE All-Share Index appreciated by 0.03% today.
The index closed at 25,229.12 points, with Investors’ wealth increasing by N3.779 billion and market capitalization settling at N13.161 trillion.
Activity level
The activity level improved as both volume and value of shares increased. While the volume of traded shares increased by 58.36% to 251.18 million shares, the value of the traded shares increased by 34.56% to N2.360 billion. The number of deals equally increased from 3,194 to 3,737.
- Read also;
- Nigeria GDP shrank by 6.1% in Q2 2020 as both oil and non-oil sectors tumbled
- Hybreed forex price action analysis week ending 24th – 28th August, 2020
The most traded stock by Volume was TRANSCORP, with 75.056 million shares worth N42.162 million exchanging hands in 153 trades. The next two most traded stocks by volume were ZENITHBANK with 45.456 million shares and GUARANTY with 12.925 million shares.
The most traded stock by value was ZENITHBANK, whose 45.456 million traded shares was worth N767.605 billion and exchanged hands in 383 deals. The next two most traded stocks by value were PRESCO with N566.207 million worth of shares traded, and GUARANTY with its traded shares worth N325.216 million.
Performance of Indices under our watch
The performance of the 5 indices under our watch was mixed, 2 of the indices appreciated, 2 declined and 1 closed flat.
The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices appreciated by +0.82% and +0.70% respectively, owing to price upticks in REGALINS (+9.09%) and CORNERSTONE (+8.6%) for Insurance index and CHAMPION (+8.97%) and UNILEVER (+7.5%) for the Consumer Goods index.
Loses in WAPCO (-1.71%) and UBA (-1.52%) helped to dragged the Industrial Goods and Banking indices down by 0.10% and 0.01% respectively.
The Oil and Gas index closed flat on the day.
Investor sentiment
Investor sentiment as measured by market breath (gain/loss ratio) weakened from 1.7x recorded in previous trading session to 1.0x, as 15 stocks gained against 15 stocks that declined.
The top three gainers on the day are;
- University Press Plc (UPL) gained 9.68% to close at N1.36
- Unity Bank Plc (UNITYBNK) gained 9.62% to close at N0.57
- Regency Alliance Insurance Company (REGALINS) gained 9.09% to close at N0.24
The top three losers on the day are;
- Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (TRANSCORP) lost 8.20% to close at N0.56
- Royal Exchange Plc (ROYALEX) lost 7.69% to close at N0.24
- Jaiz Bank Plc (JAIZBANK) lost 5.00% to close at N0.57
Analyst’s view
We expect the weak market performance to continue in the short term, as profit taking and bargain hunting combine to dictate this market pattern. The contraction in economic growth that was announced by the National Bureau of Statistics in the late hours of Sunday night might tilt the market towards a negative close this week.
Written by;
Nnamdi M.
