SAT, SEPT 30 2023-theGBJournal |It was a brutal week for equity investors as the Nigerian stock market recorded losses in all four trading sessions of the week.
Notably, the All-Share index dipped by 1.4% w/w to 66,382.14 points, following profit-taking activities in BUACEMENT (-11.9%) and MTNN (-1.9%) stocks.
All other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX Insurance, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Lotus ll, and NGX Sovereign Bond which appreciated by 2.77%, 1.59%, 0.20% and 0.98% respectively while the NGX ASeM index closed flat.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns settled at -0.3% and +29.5%, respectively. Trading activity remained sluggish, with a 65.7% w/w decline in total trading volume and a 40.8% w/w drop in trading value.
Trading in the top three equities namely Access Holdings Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Transnational Corporation Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 456.454 million shares worth N6.469 billion in 6,579 deals, contributing 34.09% and 36.11% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Elsewhere, sectoral performance was mixed, with gains in the Insurance (+2.8%) and Consumer Goods (+1.6%) indices while the Banking (-4.2%), Industrial Goods (-3.0%) and Oil and Gas (-1.2%) indices declined.
Analysts at Cordros Research say they anticipate cautious trading in the local stock market, in the short term, due to the absence of significant positive catalysts to boost sentiments.
Meanwhile, Global equities markets remained subdued this week, prompted by (1) hawkish central bank signals, surging bond yields, rising oil prices and China Evergrande’s trading halt.
In line with this, US equities (DJIA: -0.9%; S&P 500: -0.5%) faced selling pressure due to rising Treasury yields and uncertainty about future interest rates.
Likewise, European equities (STOXX Europe: -1.1%; FTSE 100: -1.1%) were headed for another weekly loss amid concerns over rising rates.
Asian markets (Nikkei 225: -2.0%; SSE: -0.7%) followed suit, as investors traded with bearish sentiments amid the escalating debt crisis at China Evergrande, which raised concerns about broader financial risks in China’s property sector.
Lastly, the Emerging (MSCI EM: -2.1%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: -1.7%) market indices echoed the negative sentiments across the global equities markets following selloffs in China (-0.7%) and Vietnam (-3.0%), respectively.
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