Okomu, Eterna, other stocks cause NGX negative start to new week

Nigeria’s equities market took off the new week on a negative note (down by 0.44percent or N157billion) as investors sold mostly the shares of Okomu Oil Palm, Eterna, University Press, FTN Cocoa, and Sunu Assurances.

At the close of trading, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and equities market capitalisation decreased from preceding day’s highs of 65,325.37 points and N35.572trillion respectively to 65,036.37 points and N35.415trillion.

The market closed negative despite analysts’ expectation that it will sustain positive sentiment this week. “We anticipate that investors will take long position on stocks that have bargain

hunting opportunities. However, we highlight that most bellwether tickers are currently trading at year highs and have limited upside potentials.

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“Furthermore, we recognise that the deteriorating macroeconomic conditions, including the expectation for higher inflation rate in July, could have adverse impact on corporates and investors’ outlook for these tickers. Overall, we expect the overriding sentiment in the market to be positive this week,” said Meristem research analysts in their August 14 note.

Okomu Oil Palm dropped most from N265 to N250, after losing N15 or 5.66percent. It was followed by Eterna which decreased from N19.70 to N17.75, after losing N1.95 or 9.90percent.

Sunu Assurance dropped from N1.15 to N1.04, shedding 11kobo or 9.57percent, while University Press was down from N2.49 to N2.26, losing 23kobo or 9.24percent. FTN Cocoa also lost, from N2.25 to N2.06, down by 19kobo or 8.44percent.

Transcorp, Access Corporation, GTCO, Sterling Bank, and UBA were actively traded stocks as investors in 5,899 deals exchanged 259,041,152 shares valued at N4.204billion.

“We expect mixed investors’ sentiments towards the Nigerian equities market. Given that the majority of companies on the NGX-ASI have released their second-quarter (Q2) 2023 financials, we expect any buy-interest in the market to be driven by the excess system liquidity and investors’ demand for higher returns (risk-on sentiments). However, we expect tempered interests in equities in the week,” said Lagos-based United Capital research analysts.