Nigeria’s holiday-shortened market week opens negative

Nigeria’s stock market decreased by 0.16 percent or N47billion on Tuesday, the first trading day in this holiday-shortened week.

At the close of trading session, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation decreased to 53,113.64 points and N28.634trillion respectively, from preceding day’s 53,201.38 points and N28.681trillion.
FCMB Group, UBA, Transcorp, Access Holdings and GTCO were most traded stocks on the Exchange. In 5,394 deals, investors exchanged 299,994,739 shares valued at N3.099billion. The market’s positive return has decreased to 24.34percent year-to-date (YtD).

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“Although we anticipate recoveries in some of the stocks with beaten down prices, we do not rule out sell-offs in specific counters this week,” according to Vetiva research analysts in their June 14 note to equity buyers.

“We expect the positive sentiment that prevailed in the market last week to persist during the week, given the upside potential on tickers across sectors. We also note the likelihood of price appreciation on large cap stocks.

“Our position is further supported by the decline in rate at the treasury bills primary market auction held last week. We also do not rule out the possibility of investors positioning ahead of the next earnings release and dividend announcement. Thus, we expect the market to close positive this week,” said Meristem research analysts in their June 14 note.