In the just concluded week, the domestic bourse reversed its uptrend following profit taking in mid and large-cap stocks. It appears the devaluation of Naira against the USD is yet to attract foreign investors into the Nigerian equities market.
Amid bearish sentiment, the NSE ASI contracted week-on-week by 3.03% to close at 38,286.80 points even as the YTD loss of the local bourse rose to -4.93%.
Sectorial performance was weak as four out of the five indices tracked closed southwards. Specifically, the NSE Banking, NSE Insurance, NSE Consumer Goods and the NSE Industrial indices fell by 1.53%, 0.74%, 0.03% and 3.34% to 361.80 points, 203.38 points, 563.43 points and 1,867.06 points respectively.
On the positive side, the NSE Oil/Gas index rose by 7.39% to 306.58 points as investors were bullish on SEPLAT.
Meanwhile, trading activity mellowed as total deals, volume and value of stocks traded fell by 2.94%, 12.18% and 12.63% to 13,621 deals, 0.73 billion units and N8.3 billion respectively.
In the new week, we expect the domestic bourse to trade sideways as investors stay on the sidelines to digest first-quarter GDP figures to be released in the new week.
