(Greenwich Merchant Bank): The local bourse recorded its worst decline in three (3) weeks, as stocks plunged for the fifth week in a row. The All-Share Index and Market Capitalization fell 1.2% to 39,331.6pts and NGN20.6tn respectively, their lowest levels in the year.
Therefore, the Year-to-Date (YtD) return weakened to -2.3%, its steepest so far in 2021. Conversely, activity level improved as the volume and value of units traded rose 8.4% and 44.0% respectively, to an average of 418.4mn units and NGN5.9bn.
MORISON led the gainers’ chart for the week, after its share price rose 20.0% to NGN0.66 while CHAMPION shed 33.3% to NGN1.68 to post the biggest decline in the week. Save for Industrial Goods sector (1.4%), all sectors closed in red. The Consumer Goods (-6.3%), Insurance (-5.0%), Oil and Gas (-2.2%), and the Banking (-1.9%) sectors.
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The equities market continued on a downward trend, as sentiments remain dampened. While the market opened the new month on a positive note, the bears dominated the week, resulting in the longest weekly bearish streak (5 weeks) since the week ended January 31, 2020 to February 28, 2020 (5 weeks).
We note that the rising yields in the fixed income space continues to weigh on investor sentiment, while earnings for FY:2020 have not been very impressive. In the new week, we expect the market sentiment to remain weak, although we do not rule out the possibility of an uptick by the end of the week.
