The rout on the Nigerian equities market continued in the first week of trading activities of 2019 as investors reduced and/or exited positions in stocks ahead of the elections.

As a result, most counters on the local bourse remain undervalued, trading near one-year lows.

Persistent sell pressures in market bellwethers like Access Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Nigerian Breweries drove the All Share Index (ASI) 1.3 per cent lower week-on-week (W-o-W) to 30,638.90 points.

Similarly, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return settled at -2.5 per cent while market capitalisation decreased by N88.4 billion to N11.4 trillion when activity level weakened, as average volume and value traded declined 50.0 per cent and 47.0 per cent to N411.6 million units and N2.1 billion respectively.

The top traded stocks by volume were Diamond Bank at 401.3 million units, Union Dicon with 268.3 million units and NEM Insurance with 146.4 million units while Zenith Bank at N2.0 billion, Guaranty Trust Bank at N1.0 billion and Diamond Bank at N0.8 billion led by value.

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