Stock investors lose N15bn as sell pressure weighs

Investors at the Nigerian equities market lost about N15billion last week as supply side outweighed the demand side at the Nigerian bourse.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) performance indicator –the NSE All Share Index (ASI) lost 43.16points or 0.13% to close at 33,621.75 points from 33,664.91 points recorded at the beginning of deals last week.

Also, week-on-week (WoW), the value of list- ed equities (market capi- talisation) depreciated from N11.491trillion to N11.476trillion.

Before now, market ana- lysts who expect the bearish trend in the stock market to be sustained (though with moderated losses go- ing forward), also advised investors with medium to long term investment horizon to take advantage of the current cheap valuations of growth stocks.

Crude oil prices on Fri- day gave up gains made earlier last week after the world’s top crude exporter Saudi Arabia said it stood ready to raise output to new record highs, potentially adding to a global supply glut.

Brent crude was trading 81 cents lower at $64.30 a barrel at 10:41 a.m. EDT (1441 GMT), while U.S. light crude was down 85 cents at $59.92.

This comes on the heels of the International Energy Agency (IEA) expectation that world oil demand will rise more than expected this year on the back of economic recovery and a relatively cold winter in the northern hemisphere.

Analysts said additional production in an already oversupplied market would further depress prices that are around 45 percent below highs reached a year ago.

At the Nigerian stock market, the Year-to-Date (YtD) returns of equities market stood at -2.99% last Friday. In 3,414 deals, equity traders exchanged 243,311,134 units valued at N3.787billion.

Meanwhile, twenty-two (22) stocks re- corded price gains com- pared to twenty-three (23) stocks that lost their values last Friday. Volume of stocks traded increased by 57.9% from 154.08million to 243.31mil- lion, while total value of stock traded decreased by 6.33% from N4.04billion to N3.78billion.

HEANYI NWACHUKWU