Analysts have said that they are anticipating a positive performance in the equities market as investors would seek bargain hunting opportunities.
This is coming after sentiments turned bearish as profit-taking activities dominated last week’s market performance resulting into 0.42 per cent loss for the All Share Index (ASI) even as the year-to-date (YTD) return moderated to 1.8 per cent.
Furthermore, investors’ value fell by N82 billion as market capitalisation closed the week at N21.449 trillion. Commenting on the performance of the market, Cordros Capital, said, they expect investors’ attention to be centered on the outcome of the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the year.
“We believe consensus expectation for a hold decision if confirmed will engender positive market performance as investors will cherry-pick stocks with attractive dividend yields amid negative real returns in the fixed income market. However, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the fragility of the macroeconomic environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”, they said.
On the other hand, Afrinvest, said, “This week, we anticipate a positive performance as investors seek bargain hunting opportunities”.
Meanwhile, a total turnover of 4.288 billion shares worth N25.989 billion in 32,849 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the exchange, in contrast to a total of 3.447 billion shares valued at N32.725 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 30,327 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 2.607 billion shares valued at N12.454 billion traded in 15,128 deals; thus contributing 60.81 and 47.92 per chart to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry followed with 813.813 million shares worth N1.561 billion in 2,417 deals while the Oil and Gas Industry recorded a turnover of 212.126 million shares worth N821.978 million in 2,726 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, Living Trust Mortgage Bank Plc and Japaul Gold and Ventures Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 1.582 billion shares worth N1.564 billion in 2,726 deals, contributing 36.9 and 6.02 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.