The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) has defied massive profit-taking pressure that weighed on it during the week to finally close in the green territory with a marginal 0.05 per cent uptick.
This translated into N100 billion profit for investors and consequently, the NGX All-Share Index (ASI) and market capitalization appreciated to close the week higher at 38,962.28 basis points and N20.300 trillion respectively.
The uptick came about as a result of 5.6 per cent gains in the shares of Okomu Oil following renewed investors’ interest in the stock. The gain managed to offset the -1.3 per cent and -0.9 per cent declines in ZENITHBANK and GTCO during the week.
Consequently, the month-to-date (MtD) and year-to-date (YtD) losses of the local bourse moderated to -0.7 per cent and -3.2 per cent accordingly.
Meanwhile, performances across sectors were mixed, with the Insurance and Oil & Gas rising by 1.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent indices while the banking index dropped by -0.4 per cent. However, the Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods indices closed flat.
With the current state of the market, analysts expect that savvy investors will take advantage of the moderation in the share prices of bellwether stocks to make a re-entry in the week ahead.
However, this will not stall intermittent profit-taking activities to persist as investors search for clues on the direction of yields in the fixed income market.
Accordingly, “we think the market will exhibit a choppy pattern. Overall, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings,” Say Analysts at Cordros Capital Limited.
Activity levels were stronger as volume and value traded surged by 49.5 per cent week-on-week and 28.2 per cent respectively.
Specifically, a total turnover of 1.290 billion shares worth N13.921 billion in 16,745 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 856.289 million shares valued at N10.752 billion that exchanged hands last week in 15,663 deals.
In terms of traded volume, the Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 978.172 million shares valued at N8.300 billion traded in 8,716 deals; thus contributing 75.80 per cent and 59.62 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 62.006 million shares worth N1.187 billion in 2,546 deals and the third place was Conglomerates Industry, with a turnover of 49.055 million shares worth N126.288 million in 589 deals.
During the week, trading in the top three equities by volume were FBN Holdings Plc, United Bank For Africa Plc and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc.
The three banking stocks accounted for 626.958 million shares worth N5.766 billion in 2,526 deals, contributing 48.58 per cent and 41.42 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
In the Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) segment of the local bourse, investors traded a total of 9,728 units valued at 437,821.70 were traded in 18 deals compared with a total of 106,810 units valued at N1.852 million transacted last week in 21 deals.
Momentum also rose in the bond market as traders transacted 60,929 units worth at N62.810 million in 27 deals compared with a total of 51,261 units valued at N52.911 million traded last week in 26 deals.
