Negative sentiments took precedence in Nigeria’s stock market despite the further easing of the lockdown in the country, amid persistent increases in daily coronavirus cases.

This was even as investors traded 1.469 billion shares worth N23.553 billion in 22,911 deals, in contrast to a total of 1.255 billion shares valued at N13.501 billion that exchanged hands in 20,554 deals the previous week.

Also, the NSE All-Share Index (ASI) and market capitalization both depreciated by 1.00 and 0.90 per cent to close the week at 25,016.30 and N13.050 trillion respectively. Market analysts said the performance was due to profit taking by investors after most of the stocks gained significantly the previous week. “In our opinion, risks remain on the horizon due to a combination of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and weak economic conditions. Thus, we continue to advise investors to trade cautiously and seek trading opportunities in only fundamentally justified stocks”, Cordros Capital said.

Analysts at Afrinvest, on their part, said: “We expect to see profit-taking activities in early trades next week but overall, we expect a mixed performance”.

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Further analysis showed that the general performance was broadly negative, as losses in the Banking (-3.7 per cent), Oil and Gas (-0.7 per cent) and Consumer Goods (-0.4 per cent) sectors outweighed the positive performances in the Insurance (+2.4 per cent) and Industrial Goods (+1.6 per cent) sectors.

Meanwhile, the Financial Services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 861.775 million shares valued at N8.545 billion traded in 11,647 deals; thus contributing 58.66 and 36.28 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Consumer Goods industry followed with 184.644 million shares worth N5.880 billion in 3,953 deals while the Services industry, recorded a turnover of 119.238 million shares worth N270.084 million in 1,043 deals.