The equities market opens for the second week in March with a suppressed sentiment as investors trade cautiously.
The new week opens with weak sentiment, riding on the bank of 0.2 percent weekly gains, after three weeks of straight decline.
Bargain hunting across banking tickers propelled the market to its first weekly gain in three weeks. The benchmark index gained 0.2 percent week on week, to settle at 26,279.61 points. Consequently, the YTD loss moderated to -2.1 percent.
The week’s sectoral performances, the NSE Banking index appreciated by 4.7 percent, and the NSE Insurance Index by +0.9 percent, while the NSE Consumer Goods Index dipped by -5.9 percent, Industrial Goods index declined by -4.0 percent and Oil & Gas index by -0.7 percent, all closed in the red.
Despite the market closing positive in the week, sentiments remain weak, hence investors are advised to trade cautiously, taking positions in fundamentally justified stocks.
The market trend during the week showed that the equities market closed negative on two sessions, Monday and Friday and closed positive in three other trading sessions of the week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Friday’s trading session
Activities on Friday, the last trading session of the week, showed that the Nigerian equities market closed negative as NSE-ASI lost 0.55 percent to close at 26,279.61pts.market breadth index was positive with 19 gainers against 16 losers.
Friday”s performances were mainly due to the losses recorded in OMATEX which declined by 9.76 percent, ETI by -9.30 percent, FBNH by -6.96 percent, WEMABANK declined 6.15 percent and TRANSCORP by -5.56 percent. The losses offset the gains recorded in MOBIL +9.98 percent, LEARNAFRICA’s +9.90 percent, REDSTAREX by +9.73 percent, MAYBAKER +9.69 percent and UAC-PROP by +9.68 percent.
Sector performances Friday were mixed as the Banking index declined 2.96 percent and Consumer Goods index by -0.12 percent, all closing in red while Oil & Gas index appreciated by 1.49 percent and Industrial index by +0.62 percent.
In terms of activity levels, total volume and value recorded on Friday fell by 16 percent and 45 percent respectively compared to Thursday, as investors exchanged over 361million units of shares worth over N4.28 billion. ZENITHBANK which declined by 6.00 percent was the most actively traded stock with about 86 million units of shares worth about N1.65billion.
The equities market closed down due to the losses recorded in Banking and Consumer Goods sectors, even as investors are advised to take positions in quality names with a medium to long time investment horizon as prices remain attractive at current levels.
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