Index movement on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited showed a negative trend in the last four days trading session, July 12 to 15.
The All-Share Index moderated by 0.34 per cent or 127.29, after opening the week trading at 37,994.19 to close at 37,866.90 on Thursday.
The market capitalisation also dropped to N19.73tn after opening the week at N19.795tn, a southward movement that saw investors lose N66.32bn to the market.
Sectoral performances were also negative as all the indices tracked closed in the red zone, except for the oil and gas index, which rose by 1.42 per cent during the four day’s trading session.
The banking index suffered the highest drop by 0.89 per cent, followed by the consumer goods index, which moderated by 0.76 per cent. While the insurance index recorded the least decline by 0.03 per cent, the industrial index dipped by -0.31 per cent.
Total deals, volume and value dipped by 20.45 per cent, 33.84 per cent and 65.73 per cent respectively in the last four trading sessions.
To start the week’s trading, bearish activity dominated the market, as sell pressure on heavy weighted stocks dragged the index lower. The share prices of MTN Nigeria, BUA Cement, Zenith Bank and Lafarge Africa contracted by 0.61 per cent, 0.70 per cent, 2.20 per cent and 1.15 per cent respectively.
For the first time this year and in a long while, the Nigerian equities market closed flat on Tuesday, July 13, at 37,857.24 points it opened amid mixed sentiments as sell-off in stocks such as Custodian and Allied Insurance (-6.15 per cent), FBN Holdings (-4 per cent) and Zenith Bank (-0.41 per cent) matched the gains in stocks such as International Breweries (+6 per cent), UAC of Nigeria (+1.54 per cent) and Access Bank (+1.1 per cent).
Wednesday’s trading session saw a marginal rebound on the domestic bourse by 0.04 per cent amid renewed bargain hunting activity buoyed by buying interest in the stocks of Total Nigeria, MTNN, PZ Cussons Nigeria and FBNH, which led to the increase in their respective share prices by 6.06 per cent, 0.61 per cent, 1.75 per cent and 0.69 per cent.
Against expectation, the overall market performances have remained negative during the week’s trading session. In their projection for the week’s trading, analysts at Cowry Asset Management, said, “In the new week, we expect the equities market to trade positive as investors’ position ahead in stocks, which are expected to pay interim dividends amid increased financial liquidity from the maturing bonds.”
Last week, sentiment was positive in the market for the first three consecutive days of trading as investors sought bargains on banking and oil and gas stocks. Nevertheless, the market eventually turned bearish, as investors took profit, especially on United Bank of Africa shares.
