The bears dictated proceedings in the domestic bourse last week, as profit-taking activities dominated market performance, leading to N571 billion losses for investors in the Nigerian equity market.
Representing 2.09%, the weekly loss dragged down market benchmark index as it declined on four of the five trading sessions of the week.
Precisely, the All-Share Index dipped to close at 49,664.07 basis points while market capitalization shed N571 billion to close the seek at N26.787 trillion.
Notably, selloffs of MTNN (-6.9%), BUACEMENT (-10.0%), DANGCEM (-2.3) and STANBIC (-9.7%) stocks led to the weekly loss.
Consequently, the month-to-date (MTD) loss increased to -1.4%, while the year-to-date (YTD) gain moderated to +16.3%.
Drawing insight from the week, analysts at Cordros Research projected that in the new week that commence today, investors will focus on the outcome of the bond auction scheduled held today Monday (August 15) to gain further clarity on the movement of yields in the Fixed Income market.
“As a result, we envisage cautious buying actions from dividend-yield-seeking investors amid intermittent profit-taking activities. Notwithstanding, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the unimpressive macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings,” they said in note available to Business Metrics.
Trading Statistics for the Week
In the week under review, investors trated a total turnover of 1.511 billion shares worth N13.547 billion in 20,074 deals was traded, in contrast to a total of 705.636 million shares valued at N12.850 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 22,124 deals.
In terms of volume, the Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 680.202 million shares valued at N4.672 billion traded in 9,230 deals; thus contributing 45.02% and 34.48% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Services Industry followed with 499.178 million shares worth N3.407 billion in 866 deals, while the third place was the ICT Industry, with a turnover of 113.804 million shares worth N2.246 billion in 2,083 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Capital Hotel Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and Jaiz Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 763.836 million shares worth N5.130 billion in 1,025 deals, contributing 50.55% and 37.87% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Stock Investors Lose N571bn as Bears Dictate Market Sentiments
