Markets

During Monday’s trading session, the equities market shed 21bps to settle at 30,609.06 due to losses in - GUARANTY (-2.7%), FBNH (-2.7%) and UNILEVER (-2.2%). Consequently, market capitalisation declined N26.5bn to settle at N11.2tn while YTD loss weakened to -20.0%. In line with the bearish performance, activity level worsened as volume traded depreciated 38.4% to 215.0m units and value traded declined 24.9% to N1.7bn.

Bargain hunting in banking stocks propelled a rebound in Tuesday’s session as the domestic equity market closed bullish. Bargain hunting in GUARANTY (+3.8%), UBA (+6.7%) and ZENITHBANK (+1.7%) drove the All Share Index (“ASI”) higher by 0.7% to settle at 31,007.25 points while YTD loss moderated to -18.9%. Investors' wealth improved as market capitalisation rose by N76.1bn to close at N11.3tn. Activity level weakened as volume and value traded declined by 20.5% and 22.2% respectively to close at 198.5m units and N2.1bn respectively.

The downtrend in the domestic equities market was sustained in Thursday’s session as  the benchmark index slid 0.8% to settle at 32,108.92 points while YTD loss worsened to -16.7%. In the same vein, market capitalisation reduced by N89.1bn to N11.6tn while the major drags to performance were GUARANTY (-6.7%), INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES (-10.0%) and ZENITH (-3.1%). However, activity level was mixed as value traded declined by 1.8% to N2.5bn while volume traded increased by 52.3% to 349.2m units.

On Monday, investors' in ZENITH (-1.6%), GUARANTY (-1.8%) and DIAMONDBNK (-9.4%) lowered the benchmark index by 0.2% to 32,143.41 points as market capitalisation also shed N27.5bn to settle at 11.7tn while YTD loss worsened to -15.9%. However, activity level was mixed as volume traded increased by 17.0% to 142.0m while value traded dropped by 2.0% to N1.6bn. DIAMONDBNK (32.2m units), GUARANTY (20.0m units) and UBA (N16.1m units) were top traded by volume while GUARANTY (N738.1m), ZENITH (N285.2m) and UBA (N128.3m) were top traded stocks by value.