Closing the week; Monday March 14 to 18 in the red, the domestic bourse ended Friday 0.15% weaker, bringing the All-Share Index to close at 47,282.67 points – the lowest point since 8 March 2022. Selloffs in index heavyweights, BUAFOODS (-3.09%) and ACCESS (-5.77%) were primary drivers of the overall market’s performance despite gains in MTNN (+0.24%), UBA (+1.79%) and ZENITHBANK (+0.76%). Having gained in one (1) of five (5) trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 0.33% lower w/w, reversing most of the previous week’s gains.
Over the course of the week, bearish sentiment prevailed as SEPLAT (-6.06% w/w), BUAFOODS (-3.09% w/w), MTNN (-0.24% w/w) and ZENITHBANK (-1.30% w/w) were the market movers driving the week’s loss, despite sustained gains in PRESCO (+6.40% w/w), FBNH (+3.03% w/w) and WAPCO (+2.13% w/w). Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return dipped to 10.69%, while the market capitalization shed ₦83.44bn w/w to close at ₦25.48trn.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions declining by 1.56%. A total of 599.51m shares valued at ₦3.83bn were exchanged in 4,289 deals. ETRANZACT (+0.00%) led the volume and value charts with 331.13m units traded in deals worth ₦880.81m.
Market breadth closed negative at a 1.54-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. MRS (-9.96%) led nineteen (19) others on the laggard’s table, while PZ (+9.55%) topped twelve (12) others on the gainer’s log.