The domestic bourse extended its bullish run last week, posting gains across all four trading sessions despite the federal government declaring Tuesday as public holiday in honour of the late former president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.
Sentiments were positive on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) with as massive demand for the Nigerians stocks also inflated weekly turnover of the NGX.
With the extended bullish trend, investors gained N3.238 trillion, pushing the aggregate market cap of listed companies to N83.241 trillion from N79.803 trillion it opened the week.
Similarly, the NGX All-Share Index that tracks price movement at the market surged by 5,436.1 points or 4.31% to close the week at 131,585.66 basis point, marking a historic index height.
Meanwhile, trading data seen by BUSINES METRICS showed that the rally was driven by strong demand for cement bellwethers, with Dangote Cement gaining 15.5% and BUA Cement soaring even higher by N31.3%, on the back of robust earnings expectations.
This was coupled with bargain-hunting that led to 20% price gain Nestle, 18.4% in Stanbic, and a 16.5% price increase in the shares of the FirstBank Holdco Plc.
Consequently, the month-to-date and year-to-date returns on equity investments in the country improved to 9.7% and 27.8%, respectively.
This was despite mixed sectoral performance, with the Industrial Goods index posting 19.2% gain, followed by advances in the Banking and Consumer Goods indices at 5.4% 1.3% respectively. On the flip side, the Insurance and oil and gas indices closed lower by –3.6% and –0.8% in that order.
On market activity, trading volume and value increased week-on-week by 224.6% and 364.5% respectively.
Specifically, investors traded a total turnover of 17.498 billion shares worth N500.762 billion in 142,082 deals was traded during the week in contrast to a total of 5.390 billion shares valued at N107.811 billion that exchanged hands last week in 134,390 deals.
In terms of volume, the financial services industry led the activity chart with 15.771 billion shares valued at N437.763 billion traded in 66,725 deals; thus contributing 90.13% and 87.42% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The ICT Industry followed with 325.134 million shares worth N3.492 billion in 9,028 deals while the third place was the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 313.424 million shares worth N20.162 billion in 14,917 deals.
Trading in the top three equities were the First Holdco Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, lead the volume chart as they accounted for 13.229 billion shares worth N367.498 billion in 10,083 deals, contributing 75.60% and 73.39% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
According to investment experts, investors’ broad-based sentiment is envisaged to be shaped by the outcome of the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, of the Central Bank of Nigeria as participants evaluate its impact on yields and equity valuations.
However, pending the outcome of the meeting scheduled for Monday 21 – Tuesday 22, market observers said equity trading may experience a lull, with some investors possibly booking profits from the extended rally.
