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The bearish sentiment in the Nigerian equities market was reversed last week as gains in Dangote Cement rebounded the Nigerian Stock Exchange-All Share Index (NSE-ASI) from three consecutive weeks of losses and posting the highest weekly gain in eight weeks. Consequently, the benchmark index rose 159.88 points or 0.45 per cent Week-on-Week (W-o-W) to close at 35,426.17 points while Year-to-Date loss stood at 7.37 per cent. Similarly, investors gained N58 billion as market capitalisation climbed to N12.933 trillion. It was a brief trading week as the federal government declared Tuesday and Wednesday as public holidays in commemoration of the Eid-El-Kabir Sallah season. In the same vein, NSE Industrial Index and NSE Insurance index rose by 1.96 per cent and 0.78 per cent to close at 1,750.30 points and 138.95 points respectively. However, NSE Banking index, NSE Consumer Goods Index and NSE Oil/Gas Index decreased by 3.04 per cent, 2.18 per cent, and 0.23 per cent to close at 424.84 points, 817.57 points and 295.38 points respectively. Meanwhile, market breadth remained negative, with 45 losers and 15 gainers. Newrest ASL Nigeria led the gainers table by 19.10 per cent to close at N5.30 per share. Skye Bank followed with a gain of 18.75 per cent to close at 57 kobo, while Veritas Kapital Assurance rose by 7.69 per cent to close at 28 kobo per share.
On the other side, Jaiz Bank led the decliners table by 11.11 per cent to close at 48 kobo per share. Union Diagnostic & Clinical Services followed with a loss of 10.34 per cent to close at 26 kobo and University Press declined by 10 per cent to close at N2.07 per share. Overall, the market saw a total turnover of 968.947 million shares worth N10.246 billion in 9,654 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.147 billion shares valued at N12.546 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 16,649 deals. Outlook For This Week
Analysts at Cowry Asset Management expected the local bourse to close flat in red territory as sell-offs by foreign portfolio investors and the attractive fixed income investment amid increasing yields continue to weigh on the market prices. “Thus, we opine that investors should hunt for companies with potentially high dividend yields and have recorded increased earnings as at first half of 2018”, they said. Analysts at Cordros Capital said that “our outlook for equities in the near to medium term remain conservative, in the absence of a near term one-off positive catalyst; and more so, amidst brewing political concerns. However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term.” While analysts at Afrinvest Limited noted that “despite the positive performance for the week, we note that investor sentiment on bellwethers still remains weak and we believe this will further pressure the market in the coming week. Nevertheless, we expect appetite for penny stocks to stay upbeat as noticed last week.”
Source: Leadership
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