The stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) depreciated by N13 billion in its Week-on-week (WoW) performance as bearish sentiment resurfaced on the domestic bourse.

Investors profit-taking in Unilever Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Exchange Group (NGXGroup) and CUTIX Plc shares down the market capitalisation to N21.926trillion last week.

Hence, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) shed W-o-W by 24.10 basis points or 0.06 per cent to close at 42,014.50 basis points.

Sector gauges mirrored the bearish sentiment. The NSE Banking, NSE Oil & Gas and the NSE Consumer Goods indices nosedived by 1.73 per cent, 1.63 per cent and 0.74 per cent to close at 403.27 points, 384.54 points and 565.30 points respectively. However, the NSE Insurance and the NSE Industrial indexes rose by 0.99 per cent and 0.88 per cent to close at 181.70 points and 2,196.62 points respectively.

Market breadth for the week closed negative as 23 equities appreciated in price, 43 equities depreciated in price, while 90 equities remained unchanged. Regency Assurance led the gainers table by 18.92 per cent to close at 44 kobo, per share. Multiverse Mining and Exploration followed with a gain of 10.00 per cent to close at 22 kobo, while SCOA Nigeria went up by 9.47 per cent to close to N1.04, per share.

On the other side, Eterna led the decliners table by 15.49 per cent to close at N7.31, per share. Unilever Nigeria followed with a loss of 14.42 per cent to close at N13.35 and Courteville Business Solutions declined by 11.36 per cent to close at 39 kobo, per share.

Overall, a total turnover of 1.428 billion shares worth N12.373 billion in 23,987 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 3.001 billion shares valued at N34.547 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 25,932 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.010 billion shares valued at N7.992 billion traded in 12,208 deals; contributing 70.75 per cent and 64.60 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 94.729 million shares worth N207.829 million in 878 deals, while the Consumer Goods Industry pulled a transaction of 62.779 million shares worth N1.326 billion in 3,814 deals.

Trading in the top three equities; FBN Holdings, Sterling Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA) accounted for 402.924 million shares worth N3.063 billion in 3,208 deals, contributing 28.22 per cent and 24.76 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

On Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) platform, a total of 252,857 units valued at N3.830 million were traded last week in 31 deals compared with a total of 186,360 units valued at N3.251 million transacted prior week in 16 deals, while on the Bond market, a total of 32,626 units valued at N33.332 million were traded last week in 16 deals compared with a total of 47,577 units valued at N50.350 million transacted previous week in 32 deals.

This week, analysts at Afrinvest Limited expected sell pressure to dominate the market barring any positive catalyst.

Analysts at Cowry Assets Management Limited Cowry Research expected “The local bourse index to close northwards as investors respond positively to the proposed sale of 575 million units of MTN shares to institutional and retail investors. Also, we feel investors will also position in those companies that have printed higher profitability and are likely to pay good dividends in full year, 2021.”