Bears Sustain Dominance… ASI down 0.4% w/w
An Extraction of the Afrinvest Weekly Economic & Market Report for July 12th, 2024
Photo Credit: NGX
This week, bears dominated four out of the five trading sessions, culminating in a 40bps decline in the NGX-ASI to 99,671.28 points. Resultantly, market capitalisation declined 0.3% w/w to ₦56.4tn, while YTD return dipped to 33.3% (previously 33.8%). Noteworthy, variation in the magnitude of change in ASI vs market capitalisation was due to the technical suspension of trading in eight tickers including UNITYBNK, MBENEFIT, and NPFMCRFBK following their breach of the exchange rule on earnings filing. Meanwhile, activity level improved as both average volume and value traded rose 22.4% and 173.5% w/w to 553.1m units and ₦17.0bn respectively. The volume chart was led by FIDELITY (726.5m units), ELLAHLAKES (276.5m units), and VERITASK (86.0m units) while FIDELITY (₦7.6bn), GTCO (₦3.7bn), and ZENITH (₦2.3bn) led in terms of value traded.
Across our coverage sector, performance was mixed as three indices gained while the other three lost. The Oil and Gas index led the gainers, up 1.4% w/w spurred by gains in ETERNA (+18.4%) and CONOIL (+8.3%). Following, the AFR-ICT and Industrial goods indices rose 10bps and 5bps w/w respectively, buoyed by buying interests in OMATEK (+9.2%), AIRTELAF (+0.1%), CUTIX (+10.0%), and WAPCO (+0.8%). Conversely, the Banking index topped the laggards down 2.1% w/w following selloffs in WEMABANK (-5.7%), STERLING (-5.2%), and UBA (-4.0%). The Insurance and Consumer goods indices shed 0.4% and 0.1% w/w sequentially, following losses in UNIVINSURE (-2.7%), NEM (-2.4%), CHAMPION (-7.0%), and INTBREW (-2.6%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, settled at -0.1x (same as the prior week) as 33 stocks gained, 37 lost, and 80 closed flat. LIVESTOC (+27.0%), ABCTRANS (+20.3%), and ETERNA (+18.4%) were the top performing stocks for the week while AFRIPRUD (-17.8%), THOMASWY (-10.0%), and PZ (-10.0%) were the top underperforming stocks for the week. Next week, we anticipate the bearish performance to be sustained due to a lack of positive catalyst.