Airtel, Stanbic, GTBank drag Nigerian equity market down 1.3% this week

After two consecutive weeks of gains, selloffs in Airtel, Stanbic, and GTBank halted the bullish run on the Nigerian Exchange this week.

The benchmark index was down 1.3% this week to settle at 38,648.91 points, YTD loss worsened to -4.0% while market capitalisation declined ₦266.0billion to ₦20.1trillion.

Activity level strengthened as average volume and value traded rose 15.9% and 1.2% w/w respectively to 220.6million units and ₦2.5billion.

The top traded stocks by volume were ZENITH (96.9m units), STERLING (86.9m), and ACCESS (82.7m) while ZENITH (₦2.3bn), GUARANTY (₦954.6m) and SEPLAT (₦809.5m) were the top traded stocks by value.

The Banking index advanced the most, up 1.1% w/w following price appreciation in ACCESS (+4.3%) and ZENITH (+2.8%). The Oil & Gas index followed, up 1.0% w/w on the back of gains in SEPLAT (+1.4%) and OANDO (+0.7%) while the Insurance index climbed 0.8% w/w due to rallies in LASACO (+10.3%), NEM (+3.9%) and WAPIC (+3.6%).

Similarly, the Consumer Goods index rose 0.2% w/w as investors took a position in CHAMPION (+10.0%) and HONYFLOUR (+6.1%). Conversely, losses in AIRTELAF (-10.0%), CHAMS (-4.8%), and WAPCO (-0.9%) dragged the AFR-ICT and Industrial Goods indices lower by 4.1% and 0.1% w/w.

The best performing stocks were BERGER (+14.9%), LASACO (+10.3%) and CHAMPION (+10.0%), leading  35 other gainers, while UACN (-11.0%), AIRTELAF (-10.0%) and ABBEYBDS (-9.5%) topped 19 other laggards.

Analysts in AfrInvest securities have projected that there would some bargain hunting in early trades in the coming week as investors seek to take position in bellwethers that have fallen to attractive entry prices.

“However, we believe the negative performance will be sustained in the absence of a positive catalyst,” they said.