Nigeria’s equities market fails to close week in green

Nigeria’s stock market failed to close the trading week ended Friday September 11 in green as investors booked N5billion loss.

The record negative close follows a mix of selloffs at the beginning of the review week and bargain hunting activities toward the end of the week.

Though market watchers saw how dip buyers poured into beaten-down banking shares.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) decreased slightly by 0.05 percent to 25,591.95 points as against week-open high of 25,605.64 points; also the valued of listed stocks on the Bourse decreased to N13.350trillion as against week-open level of N13.358 trillion.

The market has increased by +1.05 percent in this month of September; while its negative return year-to-date (YtD) stands at -4.66 percent.

Week-on-week (WoW), NSE Banking Index decreased most by -2.69 percent, followed by NSE Oil & Gas Index (-1.25percent).

The weekly performances of other sectoral indices show NSE Consumer Goods Index (-0.27percent), NSE Industrial Index (+0.35 percent), and NSE Insurance Index (-0.66percent).

Analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities noted that the domestic bourse recorded a mixed trading session in the review trading week, “with significant selloffs at the beginning of the week, and bargain hunting activities in the last two sessions due to dividend qualification.”

The analysts expect the performance of the market in the next few sessions to be largely dependent on events around indicators such as; global crude oil price movements, news around the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as liquidity in the FX market.