Maintaining bearish trend, equities trading on the floor of The Nigerian Stock Exchange gave up 21Bbpts as it rounded up trade at 41,845.92 from 41,935.93. It was a mixed performance amongst the observed market indices as shown in the index movement table. By this performance total point lost within the new month had increased to 343Bpts. See the index movement table for details.
Value loss by the market capitalization of the listed equities during today’s trading activities was N32.201 billion, same as 21Bpts below the opening value. Meanwhile, trading activities for the day produced 14 advancers and 36 lagers. NSEASI Year to Date gain is now 9.42% while the Market Capitalization Year to Date gain stood at N1.360 trillion same as 9.99% above the year’s opening value.
Despite positive earnings from various listed equities, market reactions remained negative. In our opinion, most funds had positioned in the market for capital appreciation long before now, in fact most entries were made as far back as December 2017, considering the capital appreciation achieved by the market during the first two month of 2018, it will be safe to conclude that such funds are currently running off with the profit made so far rather than receiving reported cash dividend.
Another factor that might be responsible for the negative performances of the market is the upcoming MPC meeting of which expectation of rate cut is high. Recall that the nation’s Headline Inflation rate had been declining YoY, thus interest rates are considered to be on the high side at the moment, under normal circumstances, rate cut is expected to further drive the nation’s economic growth.
The coming election year is another popularly discussed fundamental factor which is expected to impact the market. Depending on how it is viewed, it could either be positive or negative. We are of the view that, should international institutional investors perceive the process as a threat to their investments, the market will surfer heavy loss, else, more funds is expected in the system during the period most of which will boost market performance.
Nevertheless, market had been spotted to be slowing down around a major support line, although few equities featured on the gainers’ log today, we observed improved momentum in the buyers’ volume. Should this position continue, recovery of some lost sides may play out any moment from now. Safe Trade
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