By Nkiruka Nnorom
Profit taking activities by investors has halted the bullish sentiment that heralded the stock market this month. Specifically, sell-off on BUA Cement, which was down eight percent during the week, dragged the benchmark index down by 0.43 percent to 52,214.62 points from 52,465.31 points.
Also, the market capitalisation of listed equities fell by 0 48 percent (137bn) to close at N28.431 trillion from N28.568 trillion.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as the oil and gas (+5.2%), insurance (+1.2%) and consumer goods (+0.9%) sectors posted gains, while the industrial goods (-2.1%) and banking (-1.3%) sectors declined.
However, the activity level stayed bullish with positive uptrend in the total weekly deals by 16.9 percent to 27,801 trades. In the same vein, the traded volumes advanced 21.14 percent to 3.60 billion units while the total traded valued went up by 33.58 percent to N30.49 billion.
At the end of the week, Ardova Plc (38%), Transcorp Plc (34%) and Multiverse (33%) led the week’s gainers, while C&I Leasing (20%), Access Bank Plc (12%) and BUA Cement (8%) led the laggards’ chart for the week. Analysts at Cordros Capital said the market performance is expected to remain mixed in this week as investors rebalance their portfolios based on an assessment of corporate earnings released for the first quarter (Q1’23). Nevertheless, they said that increased fixed income yields may continue to constrain buying activities.
Analysts at Cowry Asset Management said: “Going into the new week, we anticipate a varied investor sentiment to linger on profit-taking and payments for dividend to support buying interest, just as investors react to corporate earnings ahead of markdown dates, April inflation report, and Monetary Policy Committee meeting.”
Source: Vanguard
