Nigerian stocks record biggest weekly loss in nearly 3 years as market capitalization slips by N661.64bn w/w to close at N25.79trn

SAT, 08 OCT, 2022-theGBJournal| The Nigerian Equity market opened for four trading days this week as the Federal Government of Nigeria declared Monday 3rd October 2022 a Public Holiday to mark the Nations 62^nd Independence Anniversary.

At the close of trading Friday, equities ended their three-day losing streak, as the All-Share Index (ASI) closed 0.19% higher at 47,351.43 points. On market movers, a slight recovery in MTNN (+0.81%) and gains in INTBREW (+5.56%), ZENITHBANK (+1.30%), and UBA (+3.05%) underpinned the benchmark index’s positive performance.

However, declines in three of the four trading sessions this week culminated in a 3.30% w/w loss for the NGX ASI, the most since the week ended 3 April 2020.

The major drags on the index were selloffs in telecom heavyweights AIRTELAFRI (-10.00% w/w) and MTNN (-0.40% w/w) as well as steep declines in OKOMUOIL (-9.98% w/w) and PRESCO (-9.99% w/w).

In addition, the Tier 1 banks ZENITHBANK (-2.25% w/w), GTCO (-4.23% w/w), FBNH (-2.94% w/w), STANBIC (-6.00% w/w), ACCESSCORP (-5.59% w/w) and UBA (-3.57% w/w) all faced an extended rout, most likely the continued fallout from the outcome of last week’s monetary policy meeting.

Consequently, the NGX ASI’s year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 10.85%, while the market capitalisation slipped by N661.64bn w/w to close at N25.79trn.

A total turnover of 586.939 million shares worth N8.837 billion in 17,183 deals was traded by investors, in contrast to a total of 1.005 billion shares valued at N10.406 billion that exchanged hands last week in 17,844 deals.

Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions decreasing by 31.94%. A total of 137.28m units of shares valued at N1.71bn were exchanged in 3,845 deals. GTCO (+0.29%) led the volume and value charts with 33.79m units traded in deals worth N573.80m.

Trading in the top three equities namely Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Sterling Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 239.637 million shares worth N3.546 billion in 4,375 deals, contributing 40.83% and 40.13% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Market breadth closed negative at a 1.08-to-1 ratio, with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. MAYBAKER (-9.78%) led thirteen others on the laggard’s table, while FTNCOCOA (+7.14%) topped twelve others on the gainer’s log.

Highlights of market activities.

 Dividend Information for 2022

Meanwhile, global stocks staged an impressive comeback from last week’s rout on the premise that global monetary policymakers may be eyeing a shift toward less aggressive tightening.

However, sentiments turned bearish later in the week following the release of the U.S. payroll report (for September), which reignited fears of a more hawkish Fed. Accordingly, U.S. (DJIA: +4.2% and S&P 500: +4.4%) stocks rallied, supported by weak U.S. manufacturing data amid a short reprieve in rising U.S Treasury yields earlier in the week.

Similarly, European equities (STOXX Europe: +2.1% and FTSE 100: +1.5%) were on course for a solid start to the month as investors flocked into cyclical stocks despite the weak eurozone PMI data.

In Asian markets, the Nikkei 225 (+4.5%) received a massive boost from the rally on Wall Street. However, the Chinese (SSE: 0.0%) market traded in a lull following the observance of the Golden Week holiday in China.

Elsewhere, the Emerging (MSCI EM: +4.0%) closed higher following gains in Taiwan (+2.1%) while the Frontier (MSCI FM: -0.6%) markets stocks declined due to bearish sentiments in Vietnam (-9.3%).

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