What would have been a day of heavy loses for the Nigerian Stock Exchange was counterbalanced by the high cap. stocks listed on The Exchange; Airtel Africa Plc (AIRTELAFRI), Nestle Nigeria Plc (NESTLE), Dangote Cement Plc (DANGCEM) and Bua Cement Plc (BUACEMENT).
Four of the five most capitalized stocks on The Exchange recorded gains today, and their gains were sufficient to drag the benchmark NSE All-Share Index to drop only 15.01 points, and close the day 0.04% lower than it started it.
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The market capitalization shed only N8.925 billion to settle at N17.829 trillion. The aforementioned high cap. stocks has a combined capitalization of N8.38 trillion representing 47% of the entire Nigerian Stock Exchange Equities capitalization.
Activity level
The activity level improved, with both volume and value of stocks traded increasing. While the volume of traded stocks increased by 64.69%, the value increased by 73.52%.
ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume, with 79.740 million shares worth N1.912 billion exchanging hands in 1,100 deals. FBNH and ACCESS were the second and third most traded stocks by volume with 72.749 million and 65.741 million respectively.
ZENITHBANK was also the most traded stock by value, followed by GUARANTY and DANGCEM. Shares of GUARANTY worth N1.266 billion was traded, while DANGCEM had shares worth N718.221 million exchanging hands.
Performance of Indices
All but one of the indices under our watch closed in the negative territory;
- Industrial Goods Index: +2.72%
- Oil and Gas Index: -1.62%
- Insurance Index: -2.07%
- Consumer Goods Index: -2.07%
- Banking Index: -4.72%
Investor Sentiment
Investor Sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) weakened further to 0.1x from the 0.4x recorded on Friday, as only 5 stocks gained against 46 that lost.
Top five gainers by percentage are;
- AIRTELAFRI rose by 5.00% to close at N525.00
- BUACEMENT rose by 4.77% to close at N56.00
- DANGCEM rose by 3.42% to close at N199.80
- NESTLE rose by 1.82% to close at N1,400.00
- NEM rose by 0.78% to close at N2.60
Top five loser by percentage are;
- WAPCO lost 10.00% to close at N22.05
- TRANSCORP lost 10.00% to close at N0.90
- LIVESTOCK lost 10.00% to close at N1.26
- HONYFLOUR lost 10.00% to close at N1.08
- CUSTODIAN lost 10.00% to close at N5.85
Corporate Disclosures
- FTN Cocoa Processors Plc released its 1st Quarter Financial Statement for 2020
- Academy Press Plc released its 1st and 2nd Quarters Financial Statement for 2021
- Nestle Nigeria Plc gave notification of share dealings
Market Outlook
With the country officially in a recession, and inflation rate running wild, the policy actions of the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria to address these two will be a pointer to the market direction.
By; Nnamdi M.
