Bearish sentiments persisted on the local equities market last week, with the overall capitalisation declining for four out of the five trading sessions, accumulating a total decline of N476 billion.
The All-Share Index closed lower by 1.19 per cent week-on-week (W-o-W) to close at 106,538.60 points. Also, the market capitalisation shed N476 billion or 0.71 per cent to close at N66.717 trillion. This is despite the listing of 1.104 billion and 18.200 billion additional ordinary shares from Ellah Lakes and Fidelity Bank on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
Across the board, sectoral performance closed negative. Leading the laggards, the NGX Banking and NGX Insurance indices lost 2.87 per cent and 2.33 per cent W-o-W. NGX Consumer Goods index followed with a weekly decline of 1.72 per cent; NGX Oil & Gas index closed the week with a mild 0.19 per cent loss; while NGX Industrial Goods index barely moved, slipping a marginal 0.01 per cent.
On the other hand, the NGX Commodity index posted a weekly gain of 0.19 per cent. The market breadth for the week was negative as 30 equities appreciated in price, 58 equities depreciated in price, while 62 equities remained unchanged. Tantalizers led the gainers table by 36.32 per cent to close at N2.59, per share. UH Real Estate Investment Trust followed with a gain of 28.59 per cent to close at N56.90, while Livestock Feeds went up by 12.38 per cent to close to N8.35, per share.
On the other side, Eterna led the decliners table by 18.69 per cent to close at N34.15, per share. Transnational Corporation followed with a loss of 17.72 per cent to close at N46.90, while FCMB Group declined by 14.15 per cent to close at N9.10, per share.
Overall, a total turnover of 1.818 billion shares worth N47.226 billion in 64,222 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.848 billion shares valued at N51.387 billion that exchanged hands last week in 63,090 deals.
For next week, Cowry Asset Management Limited said “the market appears set for a tug-of-war between bulls and bears. Investors are bracing for the release of top tier banks’ audited financials, a potential catalyst for sentiment shifts.
“At the same time, the market’s overbought position suggests a period of caution. That said, smart money will be watching for opportunities in fundamentally sound stocks, because, in times like these, patience and strategy often win the game.”
Also, Afrinvest Limited stated, “next week, we anticipate a mild positive swing in the bourse’s performance underpinned by bargain hunting opportunities amid sustained easing of yield offers in the fixed income market segment.”
