Amidst profit-taking, the Nigerian equities market survived pressure to close in the green territory last week with 0.67 per cent rise in the All-Share Index (ASI).
Although, it was a holiday-shortened week with just four trading sessions, activities favoured the bulls and investor recouped N87 billion profit, jacking up the equities market capitalization to N13.137 trillion to close the week.
Similarly, the NSE ASI added 166.37 points to close at 25,182.67 basis points, and accordingly, Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) losses moderated to -0.3 per cent and -6.2 per cent respectively.
Although, analysts said investors’ interest across banking stocks and large caps such as BUACEMENT and MTN Nigeria that grew by 3.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively, pushed the gain of the week, they as well acknowledged appreciation in the insurance index.
This was ascribed to a recent move by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to lesson pressure on insurance company in their struggle to meet recapitalization deadline.
The commission halved the recapitalization target and extended the final deadline by nine months from December, 2020 to September 2021.
On sectors, the insurance gained highest at 3.7 per cent, followed by 2.2 per cent gain in the industrial goods index and banking index’s 0.5 per cent uptick.
On the flip side, the Oil and Gas and consumer goods indices were pared by -3.3 per cent and -0.2 per cent to close in a week with collective positive outlook.
Despite the week’s positive performance, the future of the market remains shrouded with uncertainties emanating from rising Coronavirus cases in the country as well as speculated betrayal of production cut agreement among OPEC and allies last week.
Consequently, “risks remain on the horizon due to a combination of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria and weak economic conditions. Thus, we continue to advise investors to trade cautiously and seek trading opportunities in only fundamentally justified stocks,” say analysts.
Meanwhile, a total turnover of 1.103 billion shares worth N9.876 billion in 16,616 deals were traded during the week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.469 billion shares valued at N23.553 billion that exchanged hands last week in 22,911 deals.
The financial services industry, measured by volume, led the activity chart with 814.292 million shares valued at N7.186 billion traded in 8,352 deals; thus contributing 73.82 per cent and 72.76 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The oil and gas industry followed with 66.78 million shares worth N143.050 million in 1,044 deals and the third place was the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 57.842 million shares worth N1.022 billion in 2,559 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely; Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and FBN Holdings Plc, which collectively inflated traded volume by 485.307 million shares worth N5.048 billion in 2,683 deals. They contributed 44 per cent and 51.11 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
A total of 767,768 units of ETPs valued at N5.607 billion were traded during the week in 17 deals, compared with a total of 288,112 units valued at N3.994 million transacted previously in 9 deals.
In addition, investors staked a sum of N971,140 on 1,002 units of bonds in nine deals compared with a N3.116 million invested on 2,785 units of the same instrument transacted the previous week in six deals.
