Market/Economic Insight: The weekly brief (July 23 – July 27 2018)

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The performance of the Nigerian Equity Market returned bullish last week with the index (NSE ASI) up marginally by WTD to 0.09% close at an index level of 36,636.97 and market capitalization of N13.27 trillion.

However, the sectoral performance was negative as bearish sentiments were witnessed in all sectors with the exception of Insurance and banking index that rose by 2.16% 1.97% and respectively. The Oil & Gas sector recorded the highest decline amongst NSE indices with the NSE Oil & Gas Index down by 3.74% WTD, owing to significant price depreciation in FO (-13.98%) and ETERNA (-9.23%).

The market activities were characterised by profit taking on 3 out of 5 trading sessions last week. The gain witnessed last week was due to investors’ reaction to the Half Year Financial Reports released by some companies during the week.

In the global space, equities market witnessed a mixed sentiment last week as investors reacted to Companies’ Half Year Report and Economic report released during the week. The US Nasdaq slumped by 1.06% due to disappointing results from Twitter and Facebook while Dow Jones and S&P 500 posted their fourth consecutive week on week gain.