In Nigeria, the week ended amid rising cases of COVID-19 pandemic, in lieu of the country’s equity market recording another bearish result, as the ASI index fell by 3.5% w/w to 21,094.62.
In addition, the year to date return of the Nigerian bourse finished down at -21.4%. Looking down at each sector, great losses were recorded in the Banking sector (down-5.3%) and Consumer Goods sector (down -3.9%) which was the primary cause for the weak market performance. Consequently, losses were recorded in the Industrial Goods sector (down-1.7%), and the Insurance sector (-0.3%) indices.
On the other hand, the Oil and Gas sector gained +2.3% boosted by massive gains in crude oil prices, though given the massive losses recorded in other sectors, the Nigerian bourse ended negatively.
The European equity markets also finished on a bearish note, bringing an end to another rough week of trading amid the deepening COVID-19 pandemic.
(READ MORE: Bears return ASI down 0.13% as trading volumes plunge)
The pan-European Stoxx 600 plunged down by almost 1%, with oil and gas stocks falling by 4.6% to lead losses, while healthcare stocks soared by 0.8%.
In America, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, -1.68% was 360.91 points, 1.7% lower to end at 21,052.53, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.51% lost 38.25 points, or 1.5%, to close at 2,488.65. Nasdaq Composite Index, -1.52% lost 114.23 points, or 1.5%, to end at 7,373.08.
For the week, the Dow 30 lost about 2.7%, the S&P 500 plunged at about 2.1% and the Nasdaq 100 had a weekly drop of 1.7%.
In commodities, oil soared on Friday as oil traders hoped for massive production cuts after President Trump said he was optimistic about a deal of at least a 10 million barrel production cut to soon be announced, as Saudi Arabia called for an emergency meeting with other OPEC members
Brent crude oil rose up by 9%, or $2.75, at $32.69 per barrel. Brent crude oil gained as much as 47% during Thursday’s session, its highest intraday % gain ever in history, before closing 21% higher, but still at lower than half the $66 it was trading at the end of last year.
Spot gold prices finished higher on Friday after a poor U.S. nonfarm payroll data result mirrored the economic toll from COVID-19 pandemic; however, stronger dollar limited gold’s upside. Spot gold finished up 0.4% to $1,619.40 while U.S. gold futures closed at 0.5% higher at $1,645.70 per ounce.