Away from the negative it had the previous week, the Nigerian equity market rode on the waves of bargain-hunting to return to the green territory last week with a net profit of N1.3 trillion.
The All-Share index advanced by 3.9 percent week-on-week (w/w) to close at 65,003.39 points, pushing the month-to-date and year-to-date returns to +6.6 percent and 26.8 percent, respectively.
Analysing activity levels, the total traded volume declined by 20.3 percent (w/w) while the total traded value increased by 56.2 percent w/w.
There was strong buying interest in DANGCEM (+5.1%), following the conclusion of its share buyback programme and increased appetite for Tier- 1 Banking names — FBNH (+25.6%), GTCO (+14.2%) and ACCESSCORP (+22.7%) — on the final trading session.
Meanwhile, performance across our sectoral coverage was broadly positive, as the Banking (+15.8%) index recorded the most significant gain, followed by the Insurance (+5.6%), Industrial Goods (+2.8%), Consumer Goods (+1.7%), and Oil and Gas (+0.6%) indices.
A total turnover of 4.182 billion shares worth N99.048 billion in 41,446 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 5.246 billion shares valued at N63.417 billion that exchanged hands in previous week in 57,234 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 3.015 billion shares valued at N36.762 billion traded in 20,079 deals; thus contributing 72.08 percent and 37.12 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
The oil and gas industry followed with 311.172 million shares worth N2.128 billion in 3,473 deals.
The third place was the conglomerates industry, with a turnover of 180.518 million shares worth N787.392 million in 2,111 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely United Bank for Africa, FCMB Group Plc and Japaul Gold & Ventures Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 1.727 billion shares worth N18.239 billion in 4,707 deals, contributing 41.29 percent and 18.419 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
At the close of trading on Friday, the Nigerian stock market closed the week with a strong performance, as investors witnessed a N584 billion increase in market capitalisation.
The week ended on a positive note for the market, as it recorded a 1.68 percent gain, rising to N35.395 trillion.
This was a significant improvement of N584 billion from the last session’s closing figure of N34.811 trillion.
While reacting, analysts at Cordross said, “In the interim, we expect the full swing of the H1-23 earnings season to dictate market sentiments and possibly drive positive performance as investors hunt for bargains in fundamentally sound stocks with a consistent history of interim dividend payments.
“In addition, we believe investors will closely watch the outcome of the MPC meeting scheduled to hold this week to gain further clarity on the movement of yields in the FI market. Overall, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”.
