Equities trading on the floor of The Nigerian Stock Exchange took another marginal slide, as it gave up 4Bpts of its trading points and rounded up trade at 41,155.80 from 41,172.82. It was a mixed performance amongst the observed market indices as shown in the index movement table. Week to Date the market is below opening by 15Bpts while Month to Date loss is now 27Bpts. See the index movement table for details.
Value loss by the market capitalization of the listed equities during today’s trading activities was N6.163 billion, same as 4Bpts below the opening value. Meanwhile, trading activities for the day produced 24 advancers and 25 lagers. NSEASI Year to Date gain is now 7.62% while the Market Capitalization Year to Date gain stood at N1.298 trillion same as 9.54% above the year’s opening value.
Please note that major economic indicators for the month include both the inflation figure for the month of April and the GDP for the first half of 2018. We are of the opinion that these two economic indicators will inform investment decisions through the month of May. In other words, the sideway move may linger for the better part of May except a major market fundamental visit the market arena.
Screening the market movement by the lead performance pointer’s trend, we have observed reluctance on the side of the traders. Recall that, six trading days back, NSEASI made a major step (precisely on 27th April, 2018) away from the support line where it traded for the better part of the month of April but failed to effectively consolidate the move; rather, two mild gains welcomed the move, both on the 30th April and 2nd May. In other words, April trend seems to have re-dominated the market as NSEASI resumed another sideway trend.
In our opinion, should this trend linger around the market arena, exit points will be stretched and traders may start experiencing fear probably induced by anxiety to achieve their desired exit points. Nevertheless, we have noticed few equities attempting an up/down trend as against the market sideway trend.
On this strength we are of the opinion that playing the market by individual equities’ trend will avail traders some signals. We also maintained that long term investors should keep positioning in tranches into their various equities of choice. As the first quarter earnings season winds up, identifying equities with half year incentives for timely position is an intelligent investment decision. Safe Trade.
By: Jeariogbe Tunde Segun
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