By Nkiruka Nnorom

OPERATORS in the capital market have said that the equities market may witness another massive sell-off this week on the wake of the Coronavirus announcement that greeted the country, Friday, if the Federal Government does not quickly round up and quarantine the potential victims of the virus.

They said that speed and seriousness or otherwise demonstrated by the government in ensuring that all the victims are quarantined would, in large part, determine the state of the market in the medium term. They, however, said that the downturn still presents opportunity for value investors to buy.

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The market had recorded 4.3 percent week-on-week (w/w) loss as the All Share Index (ASI) nose-dived to 26,216.46 points from 27,388.62, fuelled by massive sell-off on the back of the CONVID-19 announcement on Friday.

The market capitalisation depreciation to N13.658 trillion from N14.268 trillion, leading in N61 billion losses to investors.

According to Johnson Chukwu, Managing Director/CEO, Cowry Asset Management, the shock would moderate next week depending on the level of intervention by the Federal Government.

“A lot will depend on how the government responds to the problem; particularly, people are looking to see whether they can trace all the contacts of the Convid-19 patient and possibly quarantine them just like they did during the Ebola era

“If the government does not do that, people will keep worrying, especially in the face of the dense population of Lagos State and the market will panic more though it might not be as drastic as the level of sell-off on Friday. Government must be more serious by tracing his contacts,” he said.

Corroborating, Mallam Garba Kurfi, Managing Director/CEO, APT Securities and Funds, said the losses recorded on Friday was not surprising as similar losses were recorded in China on the onset of the virus.

He said: “The sell-off may progress to early this week, if after one week, there is positive announcement on the level of intervention by the government, everything will normalise.” Meanwhile, sectorial analysis of the week’s trading shows that the banking sector was the worst hit at 11.8 percent decline, followed by the insurance sector with 8.2 percent decline and the consumer goods sector (-3.8%).

The oil & gas sector was down 2.1 percent, while the industrial goods sector emerged the lone gainer, rising by 1.1 percent.