Stocks lose N1.99trn in week ended February 23

In the trading week ended Friday, February 23, Nigeria’s stock investors booked about N1.99 trillion loss, driven majorly by record dip in shares of Dangote Cement, MTNN and BUA Cement.

In the review trading week, the Nigeria stock market closed in the negative territory by 3.44percent as sell pressure outweighed the buy-side sentiment, ahead of the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting this year.

This week’s dip has decreased this month’s positive return to 0.92percent. The NGX Insurance Index dipped most in the review week by 8.91percent, followed by NGX Industrial Goods Index which decreased by 7.94percent, and NGX Banking Index which went down by 2.10percent, while investors interest in consumer goods stocks reflected on the sector’s 2.01percent increase week-on-week.

Market analysts said uncertainty and overall market expectation of a hike in the MPC meeting holding on Monday February 26 and Tuesday February 27 underpinned cautious investment approach toward equities.

Despite the market’s negative close in the review week, its year-to-date (YtD) return is still positive at 36.53 percent.

The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation decreased week-on-week (WoW) from preceding week’s 105,722.78 points and N57.849trillion respectively to 102,088.07 points and N55.861trillion.

Ahead of the review week’s trading sessions, Lagos-based United Capital analysts noted that given the tremendous value that still exists in the equities market, on the back of currently undervalued stocks particularly the banking stocks (which are currently trading beyond the oversold region), “we still expect background bargain hunting activities, albeit overshadowed by the short-term negative sentiment, pending the release of Full Year 2023 financial results and corporate actions from top-tier banks, and other corporates.”