Market Commentary

It felt a bit like a mid-January deja-vu this week with equities and commodities getting crushed, the dollar rallying, and much talk about a change in monetary policy. Global stocks mostly fell on Thursday as uninspiring economic data and lower oil prices weighed on sentiment. A flurry of data painted a weaker-than-expected picture of the U.S. economy, however, stocks showed a rally later on news that US oil rig count fell by 15 this week, lifting oil prices from session lows. On top of that, traders remained mostly cautious with many leading markets closed on Friday and Monday for the Easter weekend holiday…

While one swallow does not a summer make, this week awarded global investors with an early Easter gift. The US Fed meeting on Wednesday boosted world stocks as The Federal Reserve signalled two more interest rate hikes for this year instead of the four it had projected back in December ; citing an uncertain global economic outlook.

Weeks come and go and are more or less alike on global markets. Extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures as ECB’s President surpassed investors’ expectations by cutting all three main interest rates and increasing monthly asset purchases to a higher-than-hoped 80 billion euros. The move triggered buying across emerging markets, which benefit from low borrowing costs in developed nations as investors seek higher returns in riskier assets. The excitement was quickly contained and the volatility maintained when during his press conference Draghi stated that the ECB was not planning further interest rate cuts sending stocks lower Thursday before a new rally on Friday as investors digested the news.

The Nigerian equities market reversed yesterday's bearish performance as the All Share Index appreciated 0.5% to close at 25,885.31 points; The GSE Composite Index lost 0.22 points to close at 1,970.62 representing a year-to-date loss of 1.22 %; The ZSE Industrial index went up by a marginal 0.01 points (0.01%) to close at 98.97 points