Stocks shed N84bn in week ended March 18

Nigeria’s equities market closed the trading week ended Friday March 18 in red following increased sell-side activities on the Bourse. Equities investors lost about N84billion in the review week.

The week to March 18 saw four (4) days of negative closes as against one (1) day of positives. Market watchers had anticipated a slightly bullish close to the review week as investors were expected to continue to trade stocks in line with companies final dividend payments while also cherry-picking attractive counters across board.

As investors defied earlier expectations of bargain hunting in the review trading week, the equities market’s benchmark performance indicator – Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) –All Share Index (ASI) decreased week-on-week (WoW) by 0.33 percent, from week-open high of 47,437.48 points to 47,282.67 points.

Also, the value of stocks listed on the Nigerian Exchange decreased by N84billion, from week-open high of N25.566trillion to N25.482trillion on Friday March 18.

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Amid record negative close in the review week, analysts at Lagos-based Vetiva said they expect to see a tepid start to a new week’s trading, “as investors continue to trade in line with the earnings report released into the market”, adding that they anticipate some profit-taking activity on some of the review week’s gainers.

The record negative (-0.33percent) in the review week pushed the market’s positive return year-to-date (YtD) to new low of 10.69percent; while month-to-date (MtD), the market has decreased by 0.24percent.

Except NGX Industrial Index (+0.14percent), other NGX sectoral indices closed the review week in red. NGX Consumer Goods Index decreased by 0.43percent; NGX Oil & Gas Index (-3.87percent); NGX Banking Index (-0.17percent) and NGX Insurance Index (-2.93percent).