By Munachimso Obienyi
Amid the current weak macro-economy, heated political environment, inflation, scarcity of foreign exchange, Nigeria’s stock market closed in the negative territory, recording 3.4 per cent to close at 47,351.43 points– its biggest weekly loss in 3 years, last week.
Similarly, investors’ wealth dipped by N660 billion week-on-week (w/w) as market capitalization which opened at N26.451 trillion, closed the week at N25.791 trillion.
Accordingly, the market’s year-to-date (YTD) return weakened to 10.8 per cent which previously stood at 14.8 per cent.
Investigations done by NwafoLive revealed that profit-taking occurred in major stocks like Airtel Africa (-10 per cent), Presco (-9.99 per cent). In addition, tier-1 banks like AccessCorp (-5.59 per cent), GTCO (-4.23 per cent) and Zenith Bank (-2.25 per cent) all faced an extended rout, most likely the continued fallout from the outcome of the previously held Monetary Policy Meeting (MPC).
Performance across sectors was largely bearish, as losses in the Banking (-3.4 per cent), Insurance (-1.2 per cent), Oil & Gas (-1.0 per cent), Consumer Goods (-0.6 per cent), and Industrial Goods (-0.3 per cent) indices reflected the overall market sentiment.
Further analysis of the market performance showed that activity levels mirrored the market’s broad gauge, as trading volume and value declined by 41.6 per cent w/w and 15.1 per cent w/w, respectively.
Commenting on the performance of the market, analysts at Cordros Research, 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 amidst expectations of a continued uptick in fixed income 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”.
