Investors at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) went home at the end of trading last week with N301 billion profit as the market sustained positive trend despite opening only three trading sessions.
The bullish momentum in the local bourse gained steam as sustained bargain hunting activities in blue-chip stocks pushed the All-Share Index (ASI) above the 50,000 psychological mark to close at 50,937.01 basis points.
At the end of the week, the ASI gained 2.61 per cent from 48,459.65 basis points recorded as of the end of the previous week to close last week at 50,935.03 index points, following the 2.43 per cent growth recorded in the previous week.
As such equities investors earned N301 billion as the market capitalisation followed positive sentiments to close at N27.460 trillion as against N26.761 trillion recorded for the previous week.
This brings the month-to-date performance of the Nigerian stock market to +2.61 per cent and a year-to-date gain of 19.24 per cent.
Investors’ demand for bellwethers such as Presco, Guinness, Nigerian Breweries, Okomu Oilpalm, BUA Cement and MTN Nigeria drove the benchmark Index weekly growth as their shares appreciated by 18.6 per cent, 18.3 per cent, 22.7 per cent, 15.7 per cent, 8.2 per cent and 6.1 per cent, respectively.
According to data from the NGX, 49 equities appreciated at price during the week under review, lower than 56 equities in the previous week. 32 equities depreciated in price, higher than 26 equities in the previous week, while 75 equities remained unchanged higher than 74 equities recorded in the previous week.
Following an overall bullish trend, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Insurance Index, NGX-AFR Bank Value Index, NGX MERI Value Index, NGX Oil/Gas Index, NGX Growth Index and NGX Sovereign Bond Index, respectively. While NGX AseM index closed flat.
However, activity levels were weaker than in the prior week as volume and value traded decreased by 24.6 per cent and 16.9 per cent, respectively.
A total of 1.60 billion shares valued at N19.60 billion were traded during the week across 21,494 deals on the floor of the Exchange. This is lower than the 8.21 billion units of shares valued at N46.15 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 28,622 deals.
The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart in terms of volume of shares traded with 1.06 billion shares valued at N7.73 billion traded in 8,670 deals; thereby contributing 66.15 per cent and 39.42 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry followed with 148.17 million shares worth N250.57 million in 852 deals, while the Consumer Goods Industry, stood in third place with a turnover of 145.47 million shares worth N5.23 billion in 4,557 deals.
Trading in the top three equities by volume, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Transcorp Plc, accounted for 547.58 million shares worth N2.33 billion in 957 deals, contributing 34.26 per cent and 11.89 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Looking ahead, analysts at Cordros believed that, given that the Q1-22 earnings season has run its course and the upward repricing of cyclical stocks that ensued, subdued market performance in the week ahead.
“The bears will likely dominate market performance, as investors cash out on the gains across bellwether stocks over the past two weeks. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings,” Cordros Analysts said in their weekly bulletin.
