SAT, SEPT 23 2023-theGBJournal |The Nigerian equity market exhibited a bullish trend over two of the past five consecutive trading days. But, the bears feasted this week, asserting their dominance, and leading to a 139bps decrease in the NGX All-Share Index (NGXASI) on a day-on-day basis and an overall weekly decline of 11bps, closing at 67,324.59 points.
This decline was mainly driven by increased selling activity in OANDO, which had been on a nine-session winning streak, as well as banking giants like GTCO and STERLINGNG, along with the industrial goods company DANGCEM.
Fortunately, the year-to-date return remained positive, expanding by 31.36% while market capitalization declined to N36.85 trillion. Despite the negative market performance, the market breadth stood at 1.13x, indicating that there were 44 declining stocks compared to 39 advancing ones.
The total trading volume saw an impressive 151.53% expansion to 1.03 billion units while the total value traded down 16.79% to N4.35 billion.
When analyzing the week-on-week performance, the stocks with the highest trading volumes included UNIVINSURE (1.66 billion units), UBA (254.35 million units), and ACCESSCORP (169.49 million units), while the top performers in terms of trading value were UBA (N4.46 billion), AIRTELAFRI (N2.99 billion), and ACCESSCORP (N2.92 billion).
On the other side of the ledger, when appraising in terms of value, UBA took the center stage with an impressive N4.46 billion, followed closely by AIRTELAFRI at N2.99 billion, and ACCESSCORP at N2.92 billion.
We expect a calm start to the week.
Meanwhile, global stocks faced downward pressure this week as the Federal Reserve indicated that interest rates would remain elevated for an extended period. Furthermore, concerns about a potential US government shutdown, due to ongoing federal budget disputes, added to the prevailing negative market sentiment.
Accordingly, US equities (DJIA: -1.6%; S&P 500: -2.7%) were on track for a weekly loss as investors digested the Fed’s hawkish stance on future rate hikes.
Similarly, European equities (STOXX Europe: -1.6%; FTSE 100: -0.4%) were poised to close lower as hawkish renditions from global central banks dented risk appetite.
Asian markets (Nikkei 225: -3.3%; SSE: +0.5%) were mixed as investors’ concerns centered around the potential for further interest rate hikes amid expectations of increased policy support measures in China.
Finally, bearish sentiments dominated the Emerging (MSCI EM: -2.9%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: -0.4%) market indices consequent upon losses in Taiwan (-3.4%) and Vietnam (-3.9%), respectively.
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