Nigerian stock market ended the week at a near stalemate. The All-share index dropped slightly by 0.06% to 40,186.70 index points following fifteen sessions of losses over the past 3 weeks.
- Year-to-date return and market capitalization settled at -0.21% and N21.02 trillion, respectively. Investor sentiment as measured by the market breadth was negative today, weaker at 0.71x on 15 advancers and 21 decliners.
- Today’s market performance was mostly driven by a significant dip in bellwether STANBIC by -10.00%. WAPCO & SEPLAT also fell by -2.15% and -3.46% respectively.
- A total volume of 307.7 million units of shares, valued at N2.90 billion exchanged hands in 4,393 deals.
- The most traded stocks by volume were FBNH (85.57 million units), UCAP (53.32 million units), and UBA (23.34 million units), while FBNH (N624 million), ZENITHBANK (N431.95 million), and GUARANTY (N348.55 million) topped the value chart.
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Top gainers
- LIVESTOCK up 9.27% to close at N2.24
- PORTPAINT up 8.70% to close at N3.25
- FTNCOCOA up 8.16% to close at N0.53
- UCAP up 6.19% to close at N6.35
- AFRIPRUD up 5.80% to close at N7.3
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Top losers
- STANBIC down 10.00% to close at N38.7
- MAYBAKER down 9.89% to close at N4.19
- MULTIVERSE down 8.33% to close at N0.22
- NEIMETH down 7.80% to close at N2.01
- ROYALEX down 7.41% to close at N0.25
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Outlook
Nigerian stocks ended the last trading session of the week on a slightly bearish note, amid falling oil prices prevailing at the U.S trading session. At the time of writing this report, Brent crude was trading around $63/barrel.
- That being said, significant losses were seen from a few NSE30 stocks that include Stanbic IBTC, SEPLAT, WAPCO, and intensified sell-offs among top pharmaceutical stocks and medium capitalized stocks weighed slightly on the bourse.
- Nairametrics envisages cautious buying, on the sentiments that recent price action shows further market correction in the near term, however, stock traders anticipate the bullish run is still in play for the long term.