The local bourse started the week on a positive note following gains in NESTLE (+4.7 per cent), OKOMUOIL (+10 per cent) and FBNH (+1.9 per cent) thus pulling the benchmark index up 12bps to close at 24,858.82 points. Consequently, market capitalisation increased N15.6 billion to N13 trillion while Year to Date return stood at -7.4 per cent.
Afrinvest report said activity level was mixed as volume traded advanced 24.8% to 158.7m units while value traded fell 24.1% to ₦1.6bn. In terms of volume, GUARANTY (17.8m units), FBNH (17.4m units) and ZENITH (10.2m units) were the most active stocks while by value, GUARANTY (₦401.1m), NESTLE (₦243.9m) and MTNN (₦202.0m) led.
Lacklustre Sector Performance
Performance across sectors under our coverage was bearish as 3 of 6 indices lost. The Banking and Oil & Gas indices lost 1.2% and 0.6% following sell pressures in GUARANTY (-1.5%), UBA (-2.3%) and ARDOVA (-10.0%). Also, price decline in WAPCO (1.8%) dragged the Industrial Goods index down 0.1%. Conversely, the Consumer Goods and Insurance indices rose 1.9% and 0.2% respectively buoyed by buying interest in NESTLE (+4.7%), PZ (+9.1%), WAPIC (+9.4%) and NEM (+3.0%). Lastly, AFR-ICT index closed flat.
Investor Sentiment Weakens
Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) declined to 0.6x from the 1.1x recorded previously as 18 stocks gained against 29 decliners. The best performing stocks were OKOMUOIL (+10.0%), REGALINS (+10.0%) and CUTIX (+10.0%) while UNILEVER (-10.0%), ARDOVA (-10.0%) and CHELLARAM (-9.7%) were the top decliners. Following sustained sell pressures last week, we expect investors to seek bargain hunting opportunities thus leading to positive performance this week.
