Bears persist to fifth week as equities investors lose N245bn in five days

Sentiments at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), remained negative as the market suffered its fifth consecutive weekly loss.

Last week, investors lost N245 billion as market capitalisation closed at N20.579 trillion on Friday as against the previous week’s close at N20.824 trillion.

Accordingly, the All-Share Index declined by 1.2 per cent Week-on-Week (WoW), the largest weekly loss in 2021 so far, to close at 39,331.61 basis points.

Consequently, the Year-to-Date (YTD) return dipped further into negative territory, settling at -2.3 per cent.

Activity levels were stronger during the week under review as trading volume and value rose by 8.4 per cent and 44.0 per cent, respectively. Specifically, a total turnover of 2.092 billion shares worth N29.744 billion in 24,238 deals was traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.930 billion shares valued at N20.656 billion that exchanged hands during the preceding week in 24,687 deals.

The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 1.633 billion shares valued at N10.727 billion traded in 13,269 deals; thus contributing 78.06 per cent and 36.06 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 92.009 million shares worth N4.521 billion in 4,168 deals. The third place was the Oil & Gas Industry, with a turnover of 91.340 million shares worth N10.527 billion in 1,471 deals.

The week’s sentiment was influenced by sell-offs in bellwether stocks. Nestle Nigeria, Flour Mills of Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries and MTN Nigeria drove the weekly loss having depreciated by 6.9 per cent, 6.4 per cent, 4.8 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively.

Last week, 14 equities appreciated in price, lower than 20 equities in the previous week. 71 equities depreciated in price, lower than 43 equities in the previous week, while 77 equities remained unchanged, lower than 99 equities recorded in the previous week.

The sectoral performance was broadly negative as the Industrial Goods index emerged as the week’s sole gainer with a 1.4 per cent increase in value. The Consumer Goods led the losers’ chart having recorded 6.3 per cent descent, followed by Insurance, Oil and Gas and Banking indices.

Analysts however advised investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remained a significant headwind for corporate earnings.

At Invest Advocate, analysts expect intermittent profit-taking to continue due to uncertainties about the direction of yields in the Fixed Income market.

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Bears persist to fifth week as equities investors lose N245bn in five days