The bulls could not maintain control of stocks trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, no thanks to investors who sold shares of Airtel Africa Plc which led the laggards.
Airtel Africa dipped most on the Bourse after its share price lost N135 or 8.26 percent, from
N1635 to N1500.
Depsite bullish start to New Year, analysts at United Capital research said they see room for a brief bearish technical reversal in mid-January.
The market decreased by 1.53percent while investors lost N430billion. The dismal performance has pushed this year’s return to the negative region of -0.75 percent.
At the close of trading session on Thursday January 5, the market’s benchmark performance indicators – Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and its Market Capitalisation decreased from preceding day high of 51,657.56 points and N28.136 trillion respectively to
50,868.52 points and N27.706trillion.
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Sterling Bank, GTCO, Access Corporation, FBN Holdings and Zenith Bank were top-5 traded stocks on Thursday. In 3,673 deals, investors exchanged 138,716,449 shares valued at N1.828billion.
“Looking forward, we anticipate robust market activity and bullish sentiments to continue briefly. The usual January momentum is likely to dominate in the near term, particularly as the yield environment appears to be shifting downwards.
“We believe investors are likely to continue to favour the equities market even in first quarter (Q1) 2023, as we estimate total sovereign maturities in Q1-2023 will print at N2.3trillion while total auctions (bonds and NT-bills) will likely hover around N1.7trillion, creating excess liquidity of N555.2billion,” United Capital research analysts said.
