Wednesday’s rise of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index, marked the fourth straight rise of the Index.
ASI grew by 0.18% on Wednesday to close at 25,460.00, following gains in STANBIC (+2.74%), ZENITH (0.59%), BUACEMENT (0.25%), GUARANTY (+0.20%) among others.
Several Tier one banks – UBA, ZENITH, GUARANTY including STANBIC on Monday said they are awaiting regulatory approval for H1 2020 financial statements.
However, on Tuesday UBA filed its report with a N0.17 interim dividend proposed by the Directors, despite a double-digit decline in profit.
Similarly, STANBIC and GUARANTY also filed H1 2020 financial statements with a proposed interim dividends of N0.40 and N0.30 respectively per 50kobo ordinary share.
- Read more; UBA Plc releases H1 2020 Financial results, declares 17kobo interim dividend as Profit drop by 21.69%
- Guaranty Trust Bank makes N94.271 billion profit in H1 2020, declares 30kobo interim dividend
Investors’ wealth grew by N23.892 billion on Wednesday, with the market capitalization settling at N13.282 trillion despite an overwhelming slump in activity level.
Activity level
The activity level crashed on Wednesday relative to Tuesday figures. The volume and value of traded shares dipped by 83.11%% and 46.71% respectively.
Total of 181.320 million shares worth N1.122 billion were traded in 3,408 deals on Wednesday, down from 1.074 billion shares valued at N2.105 billion which exchanged hands in 3,221 deals on Tuesday.
The financial service sector accounted for 49.2% (89.211 million) of the total volume of traded shares on Wednesday.
TRANSCORP was the most traded stock by volume with 26.795 million shares valued at N15.382 million exchanging hands in 77 deals.
Following TRANSCORP in volume are;
- REGALINS – 20.309 million shares worth N4.574 million traded in just 9 deals, and
- UBA – 13.295 million shares worth N86.209 million traded in 230 deals.
In terms of value, ZENITH took the lead with 13.048 million shares worth N220.666 million traded in 269 deals.
Following ZENITH in value are;
- MTNN – 1.332 million shares worth N157.534 million traded in 125 deals
- GUARANTY – 5.670 million shares worth N145.010 traded in 230 deals.
Performance of Indices under our watch
Two indices under our watch appreciated, two declined and one closed flat.
The Banking Index recorded a second consecutive day of gain. The index rose by 0.36% to close at 295.95, due to gains in STANBIC (+2.74%), FIDELITY (+2.84%), GUARANTY (0.20%), ZENITH (+0.59%) among others.
Consumer Goods index gained for the second day in a row by 0.55% to close at 433.02, following rallies in NB (+2.56%), GUINNESS (+1.45%), FLOURMILL (+1.06%), whereas the Industrial Index closed flat at 1,124.17.
The Insurance Index declined by 0.93% to close at 131.22, wiping all the gains from the previous trading session, as the 9.24% decline in MANSARD outweighed the rise in CORNERST, REGALINS, and ROYALEX.
The Oil and Gas Index declined by 0.19% to close at 190.71 following a 2.13% drop in OANDO.
Investor sentiment
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (gain/loss ratio) weakened to 1.64x compared to 3x, which was recorded on Tuesday.
18 stocks advanced on Wednesday with 11 declining, contrary to 27 stocks which advanced on Tuesday with 9 declining.
Read also; Naira value rises as exchange rate slumps at the Parallel Market against major currencies
CORNERST rose by 8.33% to close at N0.65
- UNIONDAC rose by 8.00% to close at N0.27
- REGALINS rose by 4.35% to close at N0.24
- STERLNBANK rose by 4.17% to close at N1.25
- TRANSCORP rose by 3.51% to close at N0.59
The top five decliners by percentage are;
- INITSPLC lost 10.00% to close at N0.63
- ACADEMY lost 10.00% to close at N0.27
- MANSARD lost 9.24% to close at N1.67
- UAC-PROP lost 8.70% to close at N0.84
- GLAXOSMITH lost 4.90% to close at N4.85
Analyst’s view
We expect the market performance to be driven by a mixture of bargain hunting and profit-taking, while the activity level remains subdued.
Written by;
Ifunanya Ikueze
