Weak sentiment to persist this week after N114bn investors’ loss last week

BY CHARLES ABUEDE

The domestic equities market closed negative last week as profit-taking dragged the NGX-ASI down 0.5 percent week on week to close at 46,631.46 points. In the same vein, investors lost N114 billion week on week due to weak sentiments which have led equities analysts to project the weak sentiment to continue this week given that there are no catalysts to boost the sentiment in the short term.

Accordingly, the market year to date return moderated to 9.17 percent from 9.7 percent in the prior week while market capitalisation fell to N25.13 trillion.

Similarly, the level of trading activities weakened and tilted south as the average value and volume of securities traded last week slumped 20.2 percent and 11.8 percent week on week to N2.1 billion and 227.3 million units respectively. With regards to the value of traded stocks, Zenith Bank took the lead of the top five performers, flanked by NGX Group, GTCO, MTN Nigeria, and lastly United Capital; while the most traded stocks last week by volume were Fidelity Bank, followed by, Zenith Bank, UBA, Transnational Corporation, and NGX Group joined to complete the list of the five most traded stocks by volume.

Across the sectorial front, the financial services index, measured by volume, led the activity chart with 798.3 million shares valued at N6.7 billion traded in 12,904 deals; thus contributing 70.23 percent and 62.26 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively. The industrial goods industry followed with 155.2 million shares worth N228.9 million in 917 deals. The third place was the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 45.3 million shares worth N1.01 billion in 2,819 deals.

As measured by the market breadth, the sentiment of investors improved to 0.00x from the -0.03x reported in the past week as 31 stocks gained ahead of the 20 equities witnessed last week with 91 staying unchanged from the prior week against the 86 stocks of the past week and 30 stocks depreciated in price lower than the 51 reported last week.

And at the close of the week, the NGX 30 Index increased by 0.29 percent to close at 1,776.45 points as against 1,784.11 points at the previous close. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 83.34 million units. FCMB and Guaranty Trust Bank were the key gainers, while UBN and Sterling Bank were the key losers.