The bearish sentiment in Nigeria’s equities market is seen persisting as the market kicked off the new month on a negative note.
The market closed in red on Tuesday, October 4, the first trading day of the new month as investors failed to buy into recent dip despite that the market offers them opportunity to take position on tickers with attractive upside potential.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.29percent from preceding trading day’s 49,024.16 points to 48,879.74 points, while equities market capitalisation decreased from N26.451trillion to N26.373trillion. Stock investors lost about N78billion, driven mostly by increased sell-side activities on the Bourse.
“We expect continued bearish sentiment to dominate the market as investors continue to react to the MPC’s rate hike. However, we expect some dampening of the southward trend of the local bourse driven by bargain hunters as companies release their third-quarter (Q3) 2022 results,” said analysts at Lagos-based United Capital.
International Breweries Plc led the league of laggards after its share price dropped from N4.95 to N4.50, losing 45kobo or 9.09percent, followed by RedStar which dipped from N2.30 to N2.12, down by 18kobo or 7.83percent; and CHI Plc which decreased from 57kobo to 53kobo, losing 4kobo or 7.02percent.
Read also: Nigeria stocks lose N430bn in September
Also, in their October 4 note to investors, analysts at Meristem expect the market to close the week in the negative.
“While we highlight the improvement in activities level in the market last week, we note that the mood in the market remain largely bearish, as the market breadth remained below 1.00x.
“We expect the bearish sentiment in the equities market to persist this week as the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision to increase rates continue to impact liquidity.
“However, we do not rule of the possibility of investors taking position on tickers with attractive upside potential”.
GTCO, Zenith Bank, UBA, NGX Group, and Chams were top-5 traded stocks on the Nigerian Exchange. In 4,926 deals, investors exchanged 173,463,835 shares valued at N2.389billion.
