Equities to remain pressured despite attractive valuations

When Dealing Members start to trade stocks this morning, the market will no doubt remain pressured as major negatives that hitherto caused record sell off remain.

The market failed to close in green yesterday as many investors continue to weigh the risks of holding naira assets as declining oil price is seen to pressure the naira against dollar.

Nigeria’s stock trading session on Monday March 16 closed in the red zone. The NSE All Share Index decreased by 0.12 percent to 22,705.19 points.

Stocks lost N14billion at the sound of trade closing gong as at 2:30 pm.

The market failed to sustain early morning gain. Lafarge, UBA, FBH Holdings, and Dangote Sugar were on offer, while Julius Berger and Zenith Bank saw increased bargain. In

6,981 deals investors exchanged 551,483,188 units valued at N5.755billion.

“However, negative developments in the oil price war or coronavirus could spark further selloffs in local equities”, said market analysts at Lagos based Vetiva.

“This week, seeing as the market closed up only on Friday in the previous week, we could see the market rebound, as investors dive into stocks with strong fundamentals and attractive dividend yields, given the current depressed prices. However, negative developments in the oil price war or coronavirus could spark further selloffs in local equities”, analysts at United Capital research said.

Nigeria’s stock market was down by 13.49percent in the trading week ended March 13. In value terms, this represents a loss of about N1.85trillion.

As Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread around the world, the virus is not only infecting people but also financial markets.

The Nigeria stock market entered the bear zone with record negative return of -15.30percent year-to-date (YtD).

Notably, the pressure on financial markets escalated after the OPEC+ meeting ended in a deadlock, with Saudi Arabia commencing a full-blown crude oil price war.

As a ripple effect, the spot Brent crude oil price dropped to a 4-year low (sub $40/barrel levels), prompting investors to pull out funds from risk-assets to safety assets like gold and government treasury.

Last week, NSE All Share Index (ASI) decreased  from week open high of 26, 279.61 points to close the week at a record low of 22,734.07 points. Likewise, the value of listed stocks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) dipped from N13.695trillion to a new low of N11.846trillion.

With most stocks trading at deep discounts to their expected fair value in the face of massive sell pressure last week, market watchers expect a number of stocks to enjoy positive investor patronage this week.