The volatile pattern of the market, occasioned by the ongoing anxiety in Nigeria’s political environment has continued to drive cautious trading by investors on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as the All-share index depreciates by 0.3% yesterday.
Last week Thursday, the NSE’s All-share index had opened on a sharp gap down in the morning session, which was sustained until afternoon, as high cap stocks that had suffered losses appreciated in price, before retracing up.
Also, at the end of transactions on Friday, the gains recorded on the previous session were enough to push the indices further.
However, at the end of yesterday’s transactions, the previous trading day’s positive trend was reversed, as the gains were not enough to push the indices further.
Specifically, All Share Index (NSE-ASI) shed 114.81 absolute points, representing a decline of 0.32 per cent to close at 35,311.36 points.
Also, the market capitalisation declined by N42 billion to close at N12.891 trillion.
The negative performance was driven by profit taking in Dangote Cement, Unilever Nigeria, UAC of Nigeria, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria and Ikeja Hotel.
Analysts at Codros Capital Limited said: “Our outlook for equities in the near to medium term remain conservative, in the absence of a near term one-off positive catalyst; and more so, amidst brewing political concerns.
However, stable macroeconomic fundamentals remain supportive of recovery in the long term.”
