By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- The Nigerian equities market opened the week on a bearish note, with the benchmark index falling by 2.09 percent week-on-week (w/w) on poor corporate earnings, Cordros weekly market report affirmed.
“This week’s unimpressive performance — as we had prognosticated — spoke to the fact that investors are still grappling with the stream of weak corporate earnings that hit the market at the tail end of last week through this week,” the update noted.
According to Cordros, compounding this is the increasing attractiveness of fixed income securities – amid a bleak macroeconomic outlook which further dampened sentiments.
The update says, this broadly reflected in the 3-day losing streak the bourse opened with, which was only halted by a dead cat bounce on Thursday, followed by the week’s highest daily loss of 1.17 percent recorded on Friday.
The report affirmed that succumbing to this array of downsides, the all-share index (ASI) slid to 27,425.86 points, as market capitalisation moved down by N200.60 billion to N9.42 trillion, and consequently increasing the Year-to-Date loss to 4.25 percent.
Cordros reports that all sector indices shed weight, with the Banking index losing 4.51 percent w/w and most hit following losses in the shares of Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc all losing by 5.20 percent, 3.91 percent and 3.23 percent each.
In the same vein, price declines in the shares of beer producer, Nigerian Breweries Plc and beverage maker, Nestle Nigeria Plc by 3.59 percent and 3.53 percent apiece. Cement manufacturers, Lafarge Cement Wapco Plc and Cement Company of Northern Nigeria Plc both lost by 8.66 percent and 4.86 percent to weigh down the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices by 2.72 percent and 3.39 percent w/w respectively.
Similarly, the Oil & Gas and Insurance indices took a hit to decline by 1.83 percent and 1.81 percent each w/w, as investors massively sold off across the shares of Seplat Petrol Development Company Plc, Conoil Plc and Forte Oil Plc by 18.54 percent, 5.00 percent and 4.95 percent each. While insurers, AIICO Insurance Plc, Continental Reinsurance Plc and Nem Insurance Plc lost by 8.11 percent, 6.54 percent and 3.41 percent each.
At the close of the week’s trading on the Nigerian bourse, market breadth remained negative, with 22 gainers and 39 losers posted, Cordros weekly market report affirmed.
Oil marketing major, Total Nigeria Plc emerged the top gainer with a gain of 33.34 percent w/w and Seplat topped the losers chart by a loss 18.54 percent w/w respectively compared to 22 gainers and 52 losers the previous week.
In terms of turnover, at the close of the week’s business on the Nigerian equities market, total volume traded slipped by 36.53 percent to 1.19 billion shares, worth N13.03 billion and traded in 18,548 deals, compared to the 1.87 billion shares, valued at N16.33 billion that exchanged hands in 21,584 deals last week.
Cordros reports that the Banking stocks led market activities by volume, as UBA (167.78 million), GUARANTY (123.39 million) and FIDELITYBK (103.61 million) collectively accounted for 34.80 percent of total volume traded during the week, while GUARANTY (N2.97 billion), DANGCEM (N1.93 billion) and ZENITHBANK (N1.31 billion) accounted for 48.07 percent of total value of transactions.
