Stock market opens week with N46bn loss

Despite earlier expectation that sellers will take a breather in Nigeria’s stock market this week, the market still continued on its negative route, an indication that the bears are not willing to relinquish their position.

The stock market furthered its negatives return this year (-4.24percent), no thanks to counters like Nigerian Breweries (-5.34percent), Livestock Feeds (-8.50percent), Lasaco (-4.62percent), Jaiz Bank (-4.62percent), and Regency Alliance (-9.09percent).

Barring any positive news capable of lifting investors’ sentiment, the bearish performance will filter into Tuesday trading session. Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose to 33.3percent as at fourth-quarter (Q4) 2020 from 27.1percent recorded as of Q2’ 2020.

At the close of trading session on Monday March 15, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) All-Share Index (ASI) depreciated by 0.22 percent. It moved down from week-open high of 38,648.48 points to 38,561.84 points, while the value of listed stocks on the Nigerian Bourse decreased by N46billion, from N20.221 trillion to N20.175 trillion.

Nigeria’s stock market continued to disappoint despite $90 billion wiped off in Crypto market as Bitcoin tumbles by 5percent.

Afrinvest Research analysts in their March 15 commentary had linked the sell-offs experienced in the local bourse so far to profit-taking in stocks that had rallied significantly before the beginning of the earnings season.

Only this month, the market has decreased by 3.11percent. Worst hit are banking stocks –NSE Banking Index (-8.51percent) followed by NSE Consumer Goods Index (-5.71percent), while NSE Industrial Index is the only advancer this month by +1.34percent.

“With investors leaning towards the fixed income space, sentiment is expected to remain bearish in the near term. However, we believe this presents investors with attractive entry opportunities in the equities market”, Afrinvest Research analysts added.

FBN Holdings, Notore, Fidelity Bank, Sovereign Trust Insurance, and Transcorp were actively traded stocks. In 3,527 deals, investors exchanged 184,528,225 units valued at N2.517billion.