By Chinwendu Obienyi
Despite profit-taking activities during the trading week, the value of shares traded by investors on the trading floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) rose to N45.070 billion.
This represents a 16.4 per cent week-on-week (w/w) increase from the value of shares which stood at N38.644 billion in the previous trading week.
Mixed sentiments had dominated global equities following fears over a slowing US economy, Chinese economic growth, Japanese monetary policy, and worries that the recent surge in stocks may be overdone. However, the domestic stock market edged slightly higher, driven by increased investors’ demand for Accesscorp (+12.2 per cent), ETI (+21.4 per cent) and FBNH (+7.7 per cent).
The trading week’s notable highlight was FBNH’s impressive 7.7 per cent gain, which buoyed the rise in investors’ wealth as market capitalisation grew to N39.149 trillion from the opening value of N39.082 trillion, representing N67 billion gain.
Accordingly, the All-share Index rose by 0.2 per cent w/w to 71,541.74 points, translating to Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns of +0.2 per cent and +39.6 per cent, respectively.
Despite the marginal increase in the benchmark index, the total traded volume experienced a slowdown, decreasing by 5.0 per cent w/w, while the traded value increased by 16.4 per cent w/w. A total turnover of 2.423 billion shares worth N45.070 billion in 34,704 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.543 billion shares valued at N38.644 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 36,138 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Universal Insurance Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Guaranty Trust Holdings Company Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 543.315 million shares worth N10.577 billion in 3,860 deals, contributing 22.43 per cent and 23.47 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
On a sectoral level, performance was mixed, with gains observed in the Banking (+6.1 per cent) and Consumer Goods (+0.2 per cent) indices, while the Industrial Goods (-3.0 per cent), Insurance (-1.4 per cent), and Oil and Gas (-0.6 per cent) indices declined.
Reacting to the development, analysts at Cordros Research, said, “We expect the market to remain mixed in the coming week as investors cherry-pick counters given the absence of any significant positive catalysts. Overall, we reiterate the need for investors to seek positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”.