Nigerian Stock Market Drops N136bn Last Week

• Nigerian Stock Market Drops N136bn Last Week

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market dipped N136 billion last week as the bearish trading continues.

Following a 1.7 percent decline in the previous week, the weak sentiment amid sell pressures led to another 1.25 percent decline last week despite a positive first quarter report.

The NSE All-Share Index closed at 28,847.81, while the market capitalisation declined by N136 billion to N10.842 trillion.

Weak market sentiment continued to dictate market trend as prices of most stocks are trading at almost a year-low, while the year-to-date return has worsened to -8.2 percent.

The market opened with a decline of 0.05 percent on Monday. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, sell pressures on Zenith Bank Plc, GTBank Plc, Dangote Cement Plc and Access Bank Plc dragged the index 104 percent lower.

The fall in prices of Seplat and United Bank for Africa Plc pushed the week losses to 1.25 percent or N136 billion on Friday.

The NSE Banking Index, NSE Insurance Plc, NSE Industrial Goods Index, and NSE Consumer Goods Index declined by 2.8 percent, 1.7 percent, 0.8 percent and 0.2 percent, respective.

On a global level, growing uncertainty across financial markets weighed on both emerging markets and developed economies following Donald Trump decision to impose additional tariffs on China despite the ongoing trade talks.

The U.S levied an additional tax on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, citing disagreement and the refusal of the Chinese to agree to certain terms.

According to analysts at Investors King Ltd, Trump needs a strong result for his second term campaign and appease global market he knows how to get things done or know what he was done all along.

While, the Chinese on the other hand, understands the importance of the agreement to Donald Trump second term campaign, hence, the pullback to force a better back.

Despite meeting with Donald Trump and other U.S delegates in Washington last week, the Chinese government announced a possible retaliation and blame the US for the new setback. Both nations using their situation to force better agreement.

The uncertainty surrounding the trade talks is weighing on emerging economies as global investors look for a clue on possible policy path going forward. The global oil price has already pulled back from this year high of $75 a barrel to $71.