Amidst continued risk off sentiments and the absence of positive market catalysts, trading on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) was volatile, with the All Share Index (ASI) alternating between gains and losses through each trading session this week.

Ultimately, investors lost about N40 billion as the market closed lower week-on-week (-0.3 per cent to 27,698.69 points) as significant selloffs of  heavyweights – Airtel Africa, offset gains in Stanbic IBTC, GT Bank and MTNN dragged the Year-to-Date (YTD) loss to 11.87 per cent.

Trading activities began the week on a bearish note, as the benchmark index dipped by 0.74 per cent to 27,574.32 points, following sell-offs in Airtel Africa, Dangote Cement and CCNN. Thus, the month-to-date and year-to-date worsen to -0.74 and -12.27 per cent respectively while investors lost N99.6 billion in value as market capitalisation fell to N13.423 trillion.

The bearish sentiments continued on Tuesday as the ASI shed 0.61 per cent to settle at 27,407.04 points on the back of sell offs in Airtel Africa, Zenith Bank and Flour mill. Consequently, investors lost N81.4 billion in value as market capitalisation declined to N13.341 trillion while YTD loss worsened to -12.8 per cent.
However, gains in the shares of GT Bank, Stanbic IBTC and MTNN drove the benchmark index into the positive territory on Wednesday. The All Share Index surged 1.0 per cent to settle at 27,681.61 points while YTD loss eased to -11.9 per cent.

Accordingly, market capitalisation printed at N13.475 trillion as investors gained N134 billion.

Thursday’s session saw sell offs in the shares of GT Bank, Zenith Bank and Access Bank, thus dragging the benchmark index 0.13 per cent lower to 27,646.15 points. As a result, YTD performance weakened to -12.0 per cent while market capitalisation fell by N43 billion to N13.432 trillion.

Friday’s session, however, saw the bulls returning to the market as the shares of Stanbic IBTC and Oando pushed the benchmark index up by 0.19 per cent to close at 27,698.69 points while market capitalisation closed the week at N13.483 trillion. This represents a loss of 0.3 per cent and N40 billion w-o-w.

Analysing the sectors, the Insurance (+4.8 per cent), Consumer Goods (+2.2 per cent), Banking (+1.8 per cent) and Oil & Gas (+0.5 per cent) all recorded gains, while the Industrial Goods (+0.0 per cent), index closed flat.

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At the close of transactions on Friday, Cutix led 16 others on the gainers’ chart, garnering 9.86 per cent to close at N1.56. UPL followed with 9.52 per cent to close at N1.15, Unity Bank increased by 7.94 per cent to close at 0.68 kobo, Caverton rose by 7.66 per cent to close at N2.53 while Stanbic advanced with 7.26 per cent to close at N42.85.

Ports Paints led 15 others on the losers’ chart with a loss of 9.72 per cent to close at N2.23 per share. ABC Transport was next with 8.33 per cent to close at 0.33 kobo, Eterna lost 8.33 per cent to close at N2.75, Lasaco dropped 6.67 per cent to close at 0.28 kobo while Cadbury decreased by 6.01 per cent to close at N10.95.

A total turnover of 1.272 billion shares worth N18.750 billion in 19,482 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.147 billion shares valued at N14.082 billion that exchanged hands last week in 17,980 deals.
The Financial Services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 945.947 million shares valued at N9.743 billion traded in 11,046 deals; thus contributing 74.38 and 51.96 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Consumer Goods industry followed with 82.934 million shares worth N5.556 billion in 2,862 deals. The third place was Conglomerates industry with a turnover of 80.821 million shares worth N267.101 million in 1,163 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely, FBN Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and Access Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 482.334 million shares worth N6.561 billion in 4,724 deals, contributing 37.93 and 34.99 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Analysts believe the market will continue to see weak participation on the part of investors, but remained sure that confidence is gradually slipping into the market.

Cordros Capital in their weekly note to Sunday Sun said: “Over the coming week, we expect the market to remain pressured given global risk-off sentiments and weak domestic participation.
Nonetheless, we note that valuations remain attractive while price deterioration has resulted in expected dividend yields on some stocks rising significantly to levels on par with yields on treasury bills. Hence, we advise that long-term investors consider appropriately timed investments”.

On his part, Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Capital Market Registrars, Dr David Ogogo, said: “Investors are hoping that they can rely on the legal system to take their disputes regarding their investments and then with the formation of the new advisory committee set up by the presidency bringing about a number of technocrats together, they believe that the decision taken would be good enough to take the economy to the desired level, this is thus fueling some kind of confidence in the economy and the impact is that it would positively affect investments decision also”.