Bank stocks are seemingly of less interest to equity buyers on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) as seen in early day market rout that has taken off about N266billion off investors pockets.
As at 11.30am Nigerian time, stocks that were mostly on offer radar include Stanbic IBTC (-10%), GTBank (-9.96%), Zenith (-9.84%), and Access Bank (-10%).
Stock investors had ahead of 9:30am trade opening time walked into Custom Street, Lagos Nigeria in fears.
They are not willing enough to take future risks in local equities as record shock in the oil price continues to rattle markets.
The Nigeria’s stock market which began this Monday morning sustains negative trading sentiment amid a fragile macro-economic environment as crude prices continue to slide, coupled with continuous threat posed by the fast spreading Coronavirus across the world.
“Sentiments remain weak. Hence, we advise investors to trade cautiously, taking positions in fundamentally justified stocks”, said Cordros analysts in their March 9, note to investors.
Barely two (2) hour into the day’s trading session, the market lost over N266billion. The value of listed stocks decreased to N13.428trillion from an open level of N13.694trillion. The NSE ASI also came down to 25, 766.84 points.
Oil prices suffered an historic collapse overnight after Saudi Arabia shocked the market by launching a price war against onetime ally Russia.
US oil prices crashed as much as 34% to a four-year low of $27.34 a barrel as traders brace for Saudi Arabia to flood the market with crude in a bid to recapture market share.
Crude was recently trading down 27% to $30.04 a barrel. Brent crude, the global benchmark, plunged 26% to $33.49 a barrel. Both oil contracts are on track for their worst day since 1991. The shock to oil also rattled stock markets, which were already in a panic because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
