NGX Falls by N2Trn as Sell Orders Dominate Stocks Trading
Equities investors lost about N2 trillion to sell orders dominated stocks trading on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). Several stockbrokers were noted to execute sell orders amidst tightening economic conditions.
The local bourse appears to be self-correction after hitting overbought. In the just concluded week, the Nigerian Exchange All-Share Index declined by 3.44% week on week to 102,088.30 points.
The slump came following weak sentiment which was spurred by a higher yield outlook in the fixed income market, according to Cowry Asset Limited, saying portfolio rebalancing continues ahead of expected corporate earnings and the outcome of the monetary policy committee.
Market data indicated that the sectoral performance was largely downbeat as the see-saw movement continued across tickers.
The Insurance and Industrial goods sectors were the least performing indexes as they pared the previous week’s gains by 8.91% and 7.94% week on week. The duo were trailed by the banking index which closed the week in a weak region by 2.10% due to sell-off in some bellwether banking stocks.
On the flip side, the Consumer goods popped higher by 2.01% and the Oil & Gas sectors surged by 0.01% accordingly. These were two sectors that posted weekly gains as investors picked up further interest across these indices.
In the market, the sentiment was generally weak as evidenced by the weekly tally of deals which decelerated by 1.19% week-on-week to 42,040 deals.
Cowry Asset Limited told investors in a note that the average traded volume witnessed a weekly decrease of 11.72%, settling at 1.38 billion units while the weekly average value declined by 13.46% week on week, reaching a value of N31.58 billion.
At the close of the week, JULI, FBNH, GEREGU and BUAFOODS were the major toast of investors amid the cherry-picking activities. Juli jumped by +59% while FBNH gained +11%.
Popular Geregu Plc inched higher by +9% and BUA Food price climbed by +6% respectively while the laggards for the week were MORISON (-33), STERLING (-19), NEM (-14), and ROYALEX (14%).
Stockbrokers at Cowry Asset anticipate that bearish sentiment will continue as the market seeks catalyst and policy direction from economic managers to trigger the positive sentiment.
Investors will begin to rebalance their portfolios in their search for alpha amidst the rising fixed income yields and outcome of the monetary policy meeting, the firm anticipates. Overall, equities market capitalisation went down by N1.99 trillion in a week to N55.86 trillion. #NGX Falls by N2Trn as Sell Orders Dominate Stocks Trading Shell Trims Outlook for LNG Demand Growth
