Stocks plunge third consecutive week despite eased selling pressures
ALTHOUGH THE DOMESTIC BOURSE opened with a modest gain at the start of the week, bearish sentiment dominated the ensuing trading sessions. Against this backdrop, the market persisted in its downtrend, even as selling pressures eased this past week considering the 3.04 per cent decline in the previous week, which market analysts attributed to the improving yield environment in the fixed income space. Yet, investors are expected to position in attractively priced stocks and high dividend-yielding counters, as the full-year corporate earnings trickle in.
Consequently, the NSE All Share Index closed in the red, as the market shaved 0.6 per cent week on week to settle at 41,186.70 points. Similarly, market year to date loss fell to 0.2 per cent and market capitalisation declined N130 billion, week on week, to close at N21.03 trillion. Also, trading activity waned as average volume and value traded fell by 42.6 per cent and 22.9 per cent week on week to 308.2 million units and N3.6 billion respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were First Bank
Holding (229.1m units), GTBank (110.6m units), and Zenith Bank (99.2m units), while GTBank (N3.4bn), Zenith Bank (N2.5bn), and First Bank Holding (N1.7bn) topped trades by value.
The market performance was bearish across sectors as 4 of 6 indices closed in the red from the past week. Leading the laggards was the insurance index which was down 1.7 per cent and dragged by losses in Linkage Assurance (-5.1%) and Wapic Insurance (-5.1%). Similarly, the consumer and industrial goods indices fell 1 per cent and 0.7 per cent respectively due to selling pressures in Vita Foam (-16.1%), Dangote Sugar (-3.6%), Beta Glass (-9.7%) and Cutix Plc (-5.7%).
Furthermore, price depreciation in MTN Nigeria (-1.1%) weighed on the ICT index which waned by 0.6 per cent. On the other hand, the oil & gas and banking indices closed in the green, up 4.6 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively due to buying interest in Oando Plc (+7.7%), Seplat Petroleum (+7.1%), Ecobank (+4.5%), and Fidelity Bank (+3.3%).
Meanwhile, the investor sentiment as measured by the market breadth index built up to 1.3x from 0.3x recorded the previous week following on 37 stocks that advanced against the 29 that declined. The top-performing stocks for the week were Portland Plc (+14.4%), Julius Berger (+12.8%) and United
Capital (+12.4%) while Royal Exchange (-16.7%), Vita Foam (-16.1%) and Stanbic IBTC (-14.0%) led the laggards.
As for the NSE 30 Index, it marginally decreased by 0.02 per cent to close at 1,612.56 points as against 1,612.94 points the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 168.06 million units. Fidelity and UBA were the key gainers, while Stanbic IBTC and Seplat were the key losers.