Analysts expect mixed performance as Nigeria bourse starts week bearish, index down 0.1%

By Charles Abuede

Stock market analysts at Afrinvest Research expect a mixed performance this week on the trading floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange as investors prepare to take profit following last week’s bullish run.

Signal to this was seen as the week’s trading opened Monday on a bearish note with the All-Share Index falling 6 basis points to close at 25,027.61 points due to sell-offs in BUACEMENT (-1.4%), ETI (-4.7%) and UBA (-1.5%).

Consequently, market capitalisation fell by N7.5 billion to N13.1 trillion while year-to-date loss settled at 6.8 per cent. Activity level was mixed as volume traded advanced by 4.8 per cent to 175.2 million units while value traded dipped 28.9 per cent to N1.4 billion.

The top traded stocks by volume on the exchange were FBNH (22.9 million units), UNILEVER (17.2 million units) and GUARANTY (14.0 million units) while GUARANTY (N344.3 million), UNILEVER (N206.4 million) and MTNN (N129.1 million) led by value.

Sectors bullish

Performance across sectors was bullish as three of six indices returned positive while AFR ICT index closed flat. The Insurance and Consumer Goods indices rose 1.0 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively following price appreciation in CORNERSTONE (+9.1%) , SUNUASSURE (+5.0%,), UNILEVER (+7.1%) and GUINNESS (+6.4%).

Similarly, the Oil & Gas index advanced 0.1 per cent due to buying interest in OANDO (+0.9%). Conversely, the Industrial Goods index led laggards, down 0.4 per cent due to selling pressure in BUACEMENT (-1.4%) while price declines in ETI (-4.7%) and UBA (-1.5%) dragged the Banking index 4 basis points lower.

Sentiment wanes

Investor sentiment as measured by market breadth (advance/decline ratio) waned to 1.6x from the 4.4x recorded previously as 18 stocks gainers against the 11 losers. The top gainers were CORNERSTONE (+9.1%), UNILEVER (+7.1%) and UCAP (+6.9%), while CHAMPION (-9.5%), HONYFLOUR (-8.6%) and UACN (-4.8%) lost the most.