Goddy Egene
The Nigerian equities market sustained its downward trend, recording the largest single week decline since September 2018. Despite an increase in value and volume trading, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) depreciated by 4.6 per cent to close at 29,616.38, while market capitalisation shed N547 billion to close N11.124 trillion.
Consequently, the year-to-date decline worsened to 5.8 per cent. Investors ignored corporate results and dividends announced last week and intensified their sell-off of stocks following persistent negative sentiments.
The market closed in the red in four out of the five trading days just as sectoral indices tracked closed negatively.
The NSE Consumer Goods Index led with 7.7 per cent, trailed by the NSE Industrial Index, with a decline of 6.4 per cent while the NSE Banking Index shed 6.1 per cent. The NSE Insurance Index depreciated by 3.8 per cent, just as the NSE Oil & Gas Index went down by 2.4 per cent.
Some market analysts continued to guide investors to trade cautiously in the short term.
For instance, analysts at Cordros Capital Limited said: “In the absence of a positive catalyst, we guide investors to trade cautiously in the short term. However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals and compelling valuation remain supportive of recovery in the mid-to-long.”
However, analysts at Afrinvest West Africa said: “Despite the overall negative performance, we observed increased buying activity on bellwether stocks, and we expect this trend to be sustained in the coming week as investors seek to take position in attractively priced stocks.
“However, in the absence of major triggers that could drive positive sentiments, we maintain a bearish near-term outlook.”
A look at African major markets showed that only Nigeria and Ghana ended negatively.
Ghana’s GSE Composite Index fell 0.4 per cent to close the week. The Egypt’s EGX30 led gainers, up 4.0 per cent, followed by Morocco’s Casablanca MASI with 0.7 per cent and Mauritius’ SEMDEX index 0.6 per cent. The Kenya’s NSE-20 closed the week flattish.In Asia and the Middle East, there was a bearish performance as four of five markets recorded losses. The United Arab Emirates’ ADX General Index emerged the lone gainer, rising 1.4 per cent. Conversely, the Turkey’s BIST 100 led decliners, reversing its strong performance the previous week as it went down by 6.3 per cent.Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul ASI followed, falling 3.0 per cent, while Thailand’s SET Index shed 0.6 per cent and Qatar’s DSM 20 index closed 0.4 per cent lower.But in the United […]
