Follow Us on Google
By Chinwendu Obienyi
Amid buy interests and sell-offs, bearish sentiments dominated proceedings on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), trimming investors’ wealth down by N119 billion.
The market had resumed last week’s trading activity on a negative note. Further sell-offs ensued in Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday sessions, resulting in a 0.44 per cent decline week-on-week.
Specifically, the All Share Index (ASI) closed at 49,475.42 points from an opening value of 49,615.12 points, representing a decrease of 0.44 per cent while market capitalization fell by N119 billion from an opening value of N26.805 trillion to close at N26.686 trillion.
According to data provided by the NGX, sell-offs of some banking stocks – FBN Holdings (-5.7 per cent), AccessCorp (-6.2 per cent), UBA (-6.0 per cent), Zenith Bank (-1.5 per cent) and Union Bank of Nigeria (-4.2 per cent) – led the weekly loss.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MTD) and Year-to-Date (YTD) returns stood at -0.7 per cent and +15.8 per cent, respectively. Sectoral performance was negative as all the five counters of the market posted losses. The Banking (-3.3 per cent) index led the decline, followed by the Insurance (-2.6 per cent), Consumer Goods (-0.3 per cent), Industrial Goods (-0.2 per cent) and Oil & Gas (-0.2 per cent) indices.
Reacting to the performance of the market, market analysts noted that the market is merely reacting to the mood of the economy and urged investors to rotate their portfolios towards stocks that delivered decent second quarter (Q2) 2022 earnings.
“We expect alpha-seeking investors to rotate their portfolios towards cyclical stocks that delivered decent earnings during the Q2-22 earnings season amid the yield uptick in the FI market. However, we think the absence of a near-term catalyst will likely skew overall market sentiments to the negative side, particularly as the political space gets heated.
Notwithstanding, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the unimpressive macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”, analysts at Cordros Research said.
Meanwhile, a total turnover of 719.398 million shares worth N8.004 billion in 17,444 deals was traded by investors in contrast to a total of 949.819 million shares valued at N9.329 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 18,525 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 411.407 million shares valued at N3.943 billion traded in 9,471 deals; thus contributing 57.19 and 49.26 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The ICT Industry followed with 177.815 million shares worth N955.781 million in 1,573 deals while the Conglomerates Industry recorded a turnover of 36.577 million shares worth N2.332 billion in 2,425 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Courteville Business Solutions Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 278.293 million shares worth N1.984 billion in 3,038 deals, contributing 38.68 per cent and 24.78 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
