Trading resumed on a negative footing today after the acrimonious June 12 Democracy day holiday in Nigeria. The loses were exacerbated by the maximum loss recorded by AIRTELAFRI; the third most capitalized stock on the market.
The benchmark All-Share Index (ASI) lost 166bps to close at 38,507.33 points, as the YTD loss worsened to -4.4%. Investor’s saw N339.8bn wiped off the market capitalization, which settled at N20.1tn.
The equity prices of UACN Plc and C&I Plc were adjusted for dividends as recommended by their respective Boards of Directors.
The share price of UACN was reduced from N10.90 to N9.70 accounting for N1.20 dividend, while the share price of C&I Plc was reduced from N4.84 to N4.79 to account for N0.05 dividend.
Activity Level
The activity level improved as both volume and value of shares traded rose 2.9% and 3.0% respectively. A total of 297.346 million unit of shares, valued at N3.649 billion in 4,402 deals.
Banking stocks were the most traded by volume, with STERLNBANK (33.208 million units), ZENITHBANK (25.903 million units) and ACCESS (43.138 million units).
Union Homes Real Estate Investment Trust (UHOMREIT) was the most traded security by value, as it saw units worth N695.875 million exchanging hands in a single trade.
ZENITHBANK and MTNN were the second and third most traded stock by value, with shares worth N602.184 million and N381.484 million respectively.
Index performance
The performance of indices under our watch was mixed;
- The Banking index advanced by 0.16% owing to mild gains in ZENITHBANK (+0.9%) and ACCESS (+3.1%)
- Industrial Goods index closed flat
- Consumer Goods Index declined by 0.18%, as INTBREW (-1.8%), FLOURMILL (-1.0%) and DANGSUGAR (-0.3%) all declined.
- Oil and Gas Index advanced by 0.13% on the back of OANDO (+1.7%).
- Insurance Index ROSE BY 0.41%, following gains in MANSARD (+2.3%) and NEM (+3.9%).
Investor Sentiment
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (gainers/losers ratio) weakened to 0.7x from the 1.6x recorded in the previous session as 19 stocks advanced against 26 decliners.
Top gainers on the day were; CWG (+9.73%), BERGER (+6.72%), REDSTAREX (+4.19%), and NEM (+1.87%).
Top losers were; AIRTELAFRI (-10.00%), OKOMUOIL (-9.44%), CORNERST (-9.09%), LEARNAFRCA (-8.00%) and LIVESTOCK (-1.81%).
Analyst’s Outlook
We expect the mixed performances to persist through the remaining trading sessions.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
