21st February, 2020

The local bourse could not sustain yesterday's bullish performance, dropping 65bps to close at 27,388.62. The index was largely affected by price depreciation in mid/large cap stocks such as NESTLE (-902bps), NB (-592bps), ACCESS (-309bps) and WAPCO (-127bps) among others. Meanwhile, total volume and value traded for the day closed in opposite directions, with volume traded declining by 13.15% while total value traded was up by 54.27%, courtesy of large trades in ZENITHBANK, FLOURMILL and NESTLE, accounting for 72.13% of total market turnover. Overall, the index declined by 1.32% WoW as a result of significant losses in the Consumer goods (-6.75% WoW), Banking (-2.64% WoW), Insurance (-1.28% WoW) and Oil & Gas (-1.28% WoW) sectors. The Industrial sector (+1.02% WoW) emerged as the lone gainer for the week, after benefiting from price appreciation in BUACEMENT (+18.51% WoW).

What will shape the market tomorrow? 

It was another bearish week at the equities market, as ASI posted losses in four of the five trading week. The index was set for a positive performance today but was derailed by late sell down in the consumer goods sector. We envisage bargain hunting activity in some dividend paying stocks next week as investors seek to take advantage of high dividend yield environment.

Reporting for EasyKobo on Friday , 21 February 2020 in Lagos, Nigeria

Source: Vetiva Capital Management Limited