Contrary to the bullish performance witnessed last Friday, Nigeria stock market closed the first trading session of the week unchanged as the NSE All Share Index (ASI) remained flat at 28,658.31 points.
Trading data for Monday October 19 showed the equities market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) stood at +6.77 percent.
The value of listed stocks on the Bourse closed at N14.979trillion. In 5,132 deals investors exchanged 287,300,067 units valued at N3.398billion.
Ongoing agitation against police reform has continued to cripple movement across majors cities in the country.
Market sentiment as indicated by the market breadth tilts positive as a total of 19 stocks settled higher while 18 stocks closed south.
“ASI started the new week on a quiet tone amidst diminishing turnover as well as a mixed sectoral performances”, said equity research analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva Securities.
The analysts believe that barring any significant catalyst capable of spurring Buy actions on Tuesday, they expect a similar pattern of sideways trading.
“However, with a number of fundamentally sound stocks still offering a better dividend yields compared to what is being offered in the alternative market (fixed income space), we expect fund managers to still continue to channel funds into the equities market, hence, creating an avenue for upside movement in the short/mid term”, the analysts added.
