Nigeria’s stock market reached a new low at the close of last trading session in the month of February 2020.
While the domestic equities market sustained its lacklustre performance in February, amidst continued risk-off sentiments and the absence of positive market catalysts, investors lost N1.2trillion.
Also, sustained weak sentiments toward the equities market bellwethers weighed on the index’s performance.
The All Share Index (ASI) closed the review month of February at 26,216.46 points from the month open level of 28,843.53 points, while the value of listed stocks decreased to N13.657trillion from month open high of 14.857trillion.
With 55 countries confirming cases of the Coronavirus at the end of this week, the global market recorded its worst weekly performance since the global recession in 2008.
In addition to Nigeria, the ravaging impact of the Coronavirus is seen across major global market analysts tracked.
For instance, London Stock Exchange (LSE) was down this week by -9.78percent; Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) (-5.24percent); and Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) (-4.28).
Market watchers had expected that increased influx of audited financial reports and dividend pronouncements will provide incentives for investors to lock in positions in high dividend yielding stocks.
With no proven cure and the imminent spread of the virus to other countries, analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva see no deviation from this bearish pattern next week.
It implies the bearish trend will filter into new month (March 2020) sessions, despite that the market offers opportunity for bargain hunting in some value counter that reached new lows.
At -2.33percent, the market’s year-to-date (ytd) return touched its first negative this year.
In the month of February, the record negative return increased to -9.11percent, while in the week under review, the negative return rose to -4.28percent.
All NSE Sectoral Indexes closed the review month in the red. The NSE 30 which tracks the top 30 companies in terms of market capitalisation and liquidity decreased by -9.95percent in February; NSE Banking (-15.59), NSE Consumer Goods (-18percent), NSE Industrial Goods (-1.28percent), NSE Insurance (-11.89percent), NSE Oil & Gas (-6.97 percent), and NSE Pension (-9.66percent).
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
