The Nigerian bourse closed in the negative territory for third consecutive week as the NSEASI shed 2.11%, sinking the YtD return lower to -4.29% at the close of trades this week. With seventeen (17) gainers and sixty-one (61) losers, the market breadth settled at 0.28x.
LINKASSURE was the best performing counter in the market this week, recording a price advancement of 9.72% to close at NGN0.79. However, UNIONDAC was the worst performing stock, shedding 34.29% to settle at NGN0.23. We attribute the market performance to further selling pressure which cut across all but the insurance and industrial goods sector. Consequently, several counters have fallen to their year low prices or are trading close to it.
The bearish mood in the market has persisted, dragging the market further into the negative territory. This week, we expect to see more financial scorecards across various sector which we believe will spur positive investor sentiment. The financial scorecards released last week incited some positive momentum on the counters involved and we expect that this trend will continue this week.
This week, we note the relatively attractive prices at which counters are trading should spur buying pressure. Also, we expect the release of financial scorecards to continue to drive positive investor sentiment on counters in the market.