Chinwendu Obienyi

Following sustained downtrend in Nigeria’s stock market, analysts have projected that the market would see more losses while noting that there are opportunities for bargain hunting. This is coming after sell-offs in BUA Cement, GT Bank and ETI drove the market’s All Share Index (ASI) down by 0.67 per cent while investors lost a total value of N96 billion to close Monday’s session at 27,570.58 points and N14.359 respectively.

This means that the market’s  year-to-date (YTD) return now stands at 2.7 per cent and analysts have warned investors to take positions in fundamentally justified stocks.

Cordros Capital, in their assesment of yesterday’s proceedings said, “the trend witnessed is likely to persist, as weakening market sentiment and the absence of positive catalysts are expected to pressure market returns. Nonetheless, we advise investors to take positions in fundamentally justified stocks”.

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For their part, Analysts at Afrinvest said, “We expect the bearish sentiment to persist in the near term. However, we note that there are opportunities for bargain hunting”.

Meanwhile activity level improved as the volume and value of stocks traded on the bourse rose by 1.6 and 23.8 per cent to 134.6 million units and N1.6 billion respectively, exchanged in 3,302 deals. The most active stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (22.5 million units), UCAP (17.2 million units) and GT Bank (12.4 million units) while Zenith Bank (N441.6 million), GT Bank (N362.8 million) and Unilever (N153.7 million) led by value.

On the price chart, 18 stocks depreciated in value while 11 others appreciated. Law Union topped the losers’ chart with 9.57 per cent to close at N1.04 per share, Wapic followed with 9.09 per cent to close at 0.30 kobo, International Breweries fell by 9.03 per cent to close at N7.05, Unity Bank decreased by 8.77 per cent to close at 0.52 kobo while ETI dropped 8.57 per cent to close at N6.40. Jaiz Bank, however, topped the gainers’ chart with 6.25 per cent after declaring a profit after tax of N1.79 billion in its 2019 unaudited financial results submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

Japaul Oil was next with 5 per cent to close at 0.21 kobo, Oando increased by 4.35 per cent to close at N3.60, Cornerstone garnered 3.70 per cent to close at 0.56 kobo while NPF Microfinance Bank rose by 3.60 per cent to close at N1.15.