By Peter Egwuatu

The Nigerian stock market closed in a negative territory at weekend following selloffs in some blue chip companies across the sectors of the market. This came despite the declining yields in the fixed income market.

Usually, the markets move in opposite directions.

The selloffs were majorly driven by the losses recorded in Transcorp shares, which declined by -17.7%, Access Holding Company -6.8%, MTNN -3.2% among others.

Market analysts explained that the market remained bearish because the dividend payouts so far announced were seemingly below market expectation.

They noted that the development calls for new strategies to protect capital and profit from the current phase of the market, adding that this wave of corrections and funds leaving the market are short-term realities of any market in the world adding that this may be of concern for some investors while others are taking advantage of the pullbacks.

The pullbacks, according to the experts, are driven by market dynamics in repositioning and preparing for more audited scorecards and dividend expectation.

Meanwhile, analysis of the market performance last week showed that the Nigerian Exchange Limited, NGX All-Share Index (ASI) down by 1.2% Week on Week, W/W to 106,533.26 points from 107,821.38 points the previous week.

Also, investors lost over N476 billion of their investment on the Exchange, as the market capitalisation, which shows the value of total investment listed on the NGX declined to N66.717 trillion from N67.193 trillion the previous week

Consequently, the Year-to-Date, YtD return moderated to 3.5%. Furthermore, trading activity weakened, as the total volume and value declined by 1.9% W/W and 8.0% W/W, respectively. Also, sectoral performance was broadly negative, as the Banking Index declined by -2.9% , Insurance Index -2.3%, Consumer Goods Index -1.7% , and Oil & Gas Index -0.2%, while the Industrial Goods Index remained flat.

Commenting on the market outlook, analysts at Cordros Research stated : “ Looking ahead, we expect market volatility to persist as investors contend with delays in bank and insurance earnings filings and dividend announcements while also monitoring yield movement in the fixed income market”.





https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/03/stock-market-turns-negative-amidst-decline-in-fixed-income-yields/