Week’s trading starts bearish on the Exchange

It was a tough day for the market as stocks showed a lack of direction for the most part of the session with significant selling pressure observed towards the close of the trading day.

In the view of Dunnlorenmerrifield analysts, the lack of momentum for the market comes as investors seem reluctant to make any significant moves for Nigerian equities ahead of the release of key economic policy by the new cabinet going forward.

Overall, relative weakness in major sub-sectors such as banking (3.39 per cent), consumer (0.90 per cent), and industrial goods (0.29 per cent) kept
the market under pressure.

The equities market closed yesterday on a negative note, as Nigerian Stock Exchange [NSE] All Share Index [ASI] depreciated by 1.07 per cent to close at 28,532.81 basis points, compared with the 0.15 per cent appreciation recorded previously. Its Year-to-Date (YTD) returns currently stands at 17.67 per cent.

Market breadth, however, closed positive as FBNH led 10 gainers against 25 losers topped by Stanbic at the end of yesterday’s session- an unimproved performance when compared with the previous outlook.

Market turnover closes negative as volume declined by 14.63 per cent against 41.59 per cent uptick recorded in the previous session. Continsure, FBNH and Access Bank were the most active to boost market turnover. Zenith Bank and FBNH topped market value list.

Volume shockers included International Breweries which led the list of active stocks that recorded impressive volume spike at the end of yesterday’s session.

Meanwhile, at the close of last week, the NSE ASI and Market Capitalization depreciated by 1.14 per cent to close the week at 28,841.67 and N9.915 trillion respectively.

Similarly, all other indices finished lower during the week with exception of Insurance and Lotus Islamic index that chalked up by 0.93 per cent and 0.17 per cent respectively, while ASeM index closed flat.