Stories By Grace Kehinde
Bearish sentiments persisted in the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) for the third consecutive week as profit-taking activities dominated market performance with the benchmark index recording losses in three of the five trading sessions.
Specifically, the NGX All-Share Index ended last week 0.26 per cent lower to close at 46,842.86 basis points, as the market capitalisation decreased by N58 billion to close at N25.253 trillion.
In the same vein, most sector gauges closed in negative territory amid sustained profit taking activity.
The NGX Banking index, NGX Insurance index, NGX Consumer Goods index, NGX Oil & Gas index and the NGX Industrial Goods index plunged by 7.13 per cent, 0.27 per cent, 1.83 per cent, 3.41 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively to close at 409.38 points, 185.03 points, 554.16 points, 426.94 points and 2,115.10 points respectively.
The market breadth for the week was negative as 20 equities appreciated in price, 50 equities depreciated in price, while 86 equities remained unchanged. Meyer Plc led the gainers table by 30.91 per cent to close at 72 kobo, per share. Cornerstone Insurance followed with a gain of 13.79 per cent to close at 66 kobo, while P Z Cussons Nigeria went up by 13.44 per cent to close to N10.55, per share.
On the other side, Berger Paints led the decliners table by 18.00 per cent to close at N6.15, per share. Zenith Bank followed with a loss of 16.73 per cent to close at N22.40, while Regency Assurance declined by 16.22 per cent to close at 31 kobo, per share.
Overall, a total turnover of 1.289 billion shares worth N13.546 billion in 22,118 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.176 billion shares valued at N16.601 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 21,076 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 851.598 million shares valued at N7.516 billion traded in 11,930 deals; contributing 66.07 per cent and 55.49 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 174.588 million shares worth N569.028 million in 1,095 deals, while the ICT Industry traded a turnover of 77.571 million shares worth N2.249 billion in 1,458 deals.
Trading in the top three equities; Fidelity Bank, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) and Access Holdings (measured by volume) accounted for 426.566 million shares worth N1.777 billion in 3,307 deals, contributing 33.10 per cent and 13.12 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Capital market analysts expected the Nigerian stock market to see more of bearish trading this week as the trading commence for the new month of April.
This week, analysts at Cowry Assets Management expected the domestic equities market index to close in negative territory as more companies share prices are marked-down for dividend qualification. However, we feel that investors would use this opportunity to accumulate stock with strong fundamentals.
Cordros Securities Limited said “We expect the weak sentiments that dominated the local bourse this week to persist in the week ahead, as investors continue to scale down exposure to equities following the mark down of share prices for 2021 full year dividends amidst expectations of uptick in fixed income (FI) yields. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Also, GTI Securities Limited said that “Bearish sentiment returns to the stock market, with the trading activities on equities remain dismal. We expect the coming week to continue with this trend as investments in other asset classes prevail.”
