Nigerian equities market sustained its bearish stance on Thursday as bears maintained grip hold of events that led to the sixth consecutive day of losses for investors.
The session ended with a loss of N16 billion for investors as the All-Share Index (ASI) lost 29.81 points or 0.12 per cent to close at 24,625.24 basis points and market capitalization fell with the same percentage points to close at N12.846 billion.
Sectoral performance was broadly negative following losses in the Insurance (-0.3 per cent) and Banking (-0.2 per cent) indices. The Consumer Goods, Industrial Goods and Oil & Gas indices were flat, as large cap stocks in the respective indices traded sideways.
The day’s record for equities also smack of gross weak sentiment as turnover, which depict the vibrancy of the market, shrank following 31.16 per cent and 15.23 per cent decline in volume and value traded respectively.
Investors traded a total of 130.28 million shares valued at N1.625 billion in 3,413 transactions as against189.253 million shares worth N1.917 billion that exchanges hands in 3,364 deals in the previous session.
ZENITHBANK was the most traded stock by volume at 18.95 million units, while MTN Nigeria was the most traded stock by value at NGN552.32 million.
Meanwhile, the negative sentiments are waxing stronger amidst sliding crude oil prices and resurgence of the Coronavirus pandemic across the world, which is pointing to another around of lockdown, threatening most asset classes and economic recovery, analysts have observed.
This is also coming against the backdrop of the World Economic Outlook published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday showing that the impact of COVID-19 may be worse after all than previously projected.
For example, while the global GDP is now projected to contract by 4.9 per cent this year, requiring more than $12 trillion over a two-year period to put it back on track, Sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP could contract by 3.2 per cent, and Nigeria, the continent’s largest economy shrinking by as much as 5.4 per cent.
“The wobbling macroeconomic indices are pointers to the fact that all is not well with the economy in the face of COVID-19 as recession is at corner ahead of Q2 GDP data, while manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) fell further in the month June.
“PMI for the month of June, according to data by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stood at 41.1 points, down from 42.1 and 51.1 points in May and March 2020 respectively, reflecting a contraction and rising level of unemployment due to the spiral effects of COVID-19,” says Ambrose Omordion, Chief Research Officer at Investdata Consulting Limited.
However, market sentiment on Thursday, as measured by market breadth, was positive as nine tickers gained, relative to eight losers.
The gaining camp was led by NEIMETH, gaining N0.11 to close at N1.25 per share while ETI trailed with N0.10 gain to end the session at N4.80 per share.
Other gaining equities include MayBaker, Wema Bank and FCMB, gaining N0.09, N0.05 and N0.03 to close at N3, N0.60 and N1.83 per share respectively.
On the contrary, MTN Nigeria led other losers as it shed N0.50 to close session at N117.50 per share, Followed by Zenith Bank a N0.25 in share price to close at N16.15. Others are FBNH and LINIKASSURe that shed N0.05 each to close at N5.25 and N0.48 per share accordingly, while and Livestock stocks declined by N0.02 to close at N0.68 per share.
