Bearish sentiments herald new week

By Chukwuma Umeorah

The local bourse started the week bearish, as the benchmark All Share Index (ASI) on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Monday shed 390.44 basis points or 0.38 per cent to settle at 103,047.23 points from an opening value of 103,437.67 points.

In the previous week, The NGX ASI and Market Capitalization depreciated by 1.08 per cent and 1.05 per cent to close the week at 103,437.67 and N58.498 trillion respectively. The bearish sentiment continued on Monday, as more investors stayed on the sell-side of the market.

Sell-offs in banking stocks namely First Bank, GTCO and Fidelity masked upticks in SterlingBK, and TRANSCORP, leading to investors collectively losing N220.81 billion as market capitalization closed at N58.28 trillion from an opening value of N58.498 trillion. Monday’s bearish performance dragged lower the market’s return year-to-date (YtD) to 37.81 per cent.

Analyst at Futureview Research predicted a mixed performance in the equities market as investors respond to fresh corporate actions and adjust their positions strategically in anticipation of dividend payouts. According to them, “There is likely to be a shift in focus towards the fixed income market, influencing short-term investment decisions.  Nevertheless, we anticipate a resurgence of buying interest in the equities market, driven by upcoming corporate actions and earnings reports, which will attract investors looking to benefit from dividend payments.”

At the end of the day’s trading activities, a total of 397.94 million units of shares with corresponding market value of N7.06 billion were exchanged in 9,430 deals. Compared with the previous NGX trading day, the data shows a 78 per cent decline in volume, a 58 per cent decline in turnover, but an 11 per cent improvement in deals.

124 equities participated in trading, ending with 17 gainers and 24 losers. Morison Industries  was the best performing stock for the day increasing 9.91 per cent in value closing at N2.33 per share, followed by Omatek Ventures which gained 7.69 per cent and close at N0.84 per share.

On the losing side, Abbey Mortgage lost 9.75 per cent in value to close the day at N2.50 followed by Champion depreciating by 9.68 per cent closing at N3.36 per share while Regalins went down by 9.30 per cent and closed at N0.39 per share.