By Nse Anthony-Uko
ABUJA, (Sundiata Finance) – As activities reopen on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) for the last week of April, stock market analysts are looking forward to a more positive outlook on the back of bargain hunting activities especially in favour of low-priced value stocks. Analysts at Afrinvest said that “In the interim, we expect market performance to be dictated by investors’ reaction to first quarter, 2017 earnings scorecards which are due this week. Barring any negative earnings surprises, we expect the broader index to close positive as investors hunt for bargains.”
Recall that the Nigerian stock market last week extended losses to the third consecutive week amid sustained bearish activities. The All Share Index depreciated by 320.64 points or 1.26 per cent to 25,189.37 points, while year-to-date loss increased to 6.27 per cent. Also, the market capitalization declined by N111 billion to close at N8.716 trillion.
Stock market analysts attributed the decline for the week to weak appetite for bellwethers in the Industrial Goods and Banking sectors. Performance across sectors was bearish as the Oil & Gas index emerged the sole gainer, up by 0.6 per cent week-on-week, buoyed by price appreciation in Seplat and Forte Oil.
The Banking index topped the losers’ chart, down 1.6 per cent as a result of losses in ETI, while Industrial Goods index closed the week by 1.4 per cent lower. The Consumer Goods and Insurance indices fell 1.0 per cent and 0.8 per cent week-on-week respectively due to losses in Seven Up, Nigerian Breweries, Custodian and Allied Insurance and NEM Insurance.
The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) traded for four-day trading week as the Federal Government of Nigeria declared Monday 17th of April, 2017 as Public Holiday in commemoration of the Easter celebrations. The market opened last week’s trading session in downward swing, posting losses in three out of the four sessions.
During the week, some financial statements for first quarter, 2017 were released, including Forte Oil with profit after tax up by 97.5 per cent to N33 billion, Nigerian Breweries grow profit by 9.5 per cent to N11.4 billion and Unilever’s profit after tax appreciated by 53.9 per cent to N1.6 billion.
Market breadth remained negative, with 24 gainers versus 31 losers. Also, the total volume traded decreased by 33 per cent to 896.748 million shares worth N5.918 billion in 11,185 deals were traded in contrast to a total of 1.191 billion shares valued at N6.037 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 11,820 deals.
Trading in the top three equities are Diamond Bank, Transcorp and Law Union Insurance, accounted for 335.346 million shares worth N312.960 million in 1,176 deals, contributing 37.42 per cent and 5.29 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
