Market starts August on negative note as investors react to mixed H1 scorecards

Nigeria’s equities market started the new month of August on a negative note as investors continued to price-in the half-year (H1) financials released by some companies, most of them tilting towards poor earnings.

At the close of trading on Tuesday August 1, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index and equities market capitalisation depreciated further by 0.23 percent to 64,192.20 points and N34.932trillion respectively as against preceding day’s 64,337.52 points and N35.011trillion.

“Considering that there are many stocks trading at attractive discount, we expect a
mixed sentiment in the market this week,” Futureview research analysts said at the beginning of this week.

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In 7,935 deals, investors exchanged 762,097,373 shares worth N7.7billion. AIICO, UBA, AXA Mansard, ETI and FCMB Group were actively traded stocks on Tuesday.

Investors took profit in stocks likes Fidelity Bank which dipped most, from N8.60 to N7.75, losing 85kobo or 9.88 percent. It was followed by Ellah Lakes which was down from N3.93 to N3.54, losing 39kobo or 9.92percent.

The year-to-date (YtD) postive return dropped to +25.25 percent as the market further defied analysts expectations this week.

“This week, we expect the bullish sentiments in the equities market to persist on the back of the attractiveness of the market over the depressed rates in the fixed-income market”, said United Capital research analysts in their recent note.

They also believe the positive sentiments around the new policies will continue to drive the rally in the market, adding that they expect the commencement of the second quarter (Q2) 2023 earnings season will play an important role in the market’s direction.