Stock Market Records 16% YTD Loss, Awaits Santa Claus Rally. On the back of the bearish performance that underscores trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange www.nse.com.ng through 2019, equities prices are now relatively cheaper.
The overbearing bearish run experienced in the local bourse has resulted to 16% year to date loss, thus reduced investors’ fortune significantly.
Analysts however expect that there may be rally after the Christmas, as Friday trading gains bears this expectation.
It could be recalled that last week, the equities market closed in the red despite a 125 basis points (bps) gain on Friday.
The NSE All-Share Index lost points on 2 of the 3 trading sessions in the week, declining 0.4% week on week (W-o-W) to settle at 26,416.48 points.
The stock market records 16% year to date loss as market capitalisation fell by N51.3 billion W-o-W to close at N12.6 trillion.
Trading activity waned as average volume and value traded declined by 11.2% and 23.3% W-o-W to 245.2m units and N2.4bn respectively.
The top traded stocks by volume were ACCESS (149.6m units), LAWUNION (146.3m units) and UBA (95.2m units) while GUARANTY (N2.2bn), ACCESS (N1.5bn) and ZENITH (N1.1bn) topped trades by value.
Performance across sectors was mixed as half of the sector indices under Afrinvest coverage trended northward W-o-W, while the other half lost.
The Consumer Goods index gained the most, up 4.8% W-o-W due to price appreciation in and NESTLE (+10.0%) and UNILEVER (+8.9%).
The Insurance and Oil & Gas indices followed suit, climbing 1.4% and 0.7% higher respectively W-o-W on the back of buy interest in NEM (-10.0%) and LINKASSURE (+8.2) as well as OANDO (+6.8%) and JAPAULOIL (+5.0%).
On the other hand, the AFR-ICT index led losers, down 3.7% as MTNN (-6.7%) recorded a loss on Monday.
Finally, sell pressures in WEMABANK (-8.6%), FCMB (-5.3%) and CCNN (-2.9%) drove the Banking and Industrial indices 0.3% downward apiece.
Investor sentiment strengthened in the week, as market breadth (advance/decline ratio) improved to 1.9x from 1.4x in the previous week.
The market record shows that 31 stocks advanced against the 16 that declined.
The top performers for the week were UPDC (+26.5%), NAHCO (+13.2%) and AGLEVENT (+10.0%) while MAYBAKER (-9.8%), CORNERSTONE (-9.5%) and TRANSCOH (-9.3%) led laggards.
“While we expect investors to hunt for bargain in some attractively priced stocks in the coming week, we maintain a bearish outlook for the market as sustainable catalysts for gains are yet to surface”, Afrinvest said.
