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Owing to strong sentiment towards the shares of Nestle, CCNN and Zenith Bank, Nigeria’s stock market finished the trading week on a positive note with the benchmark index appreciating by 0.52 per cent.
This was even as the market community saw the delisting of Dangote Flour Mills Plc from the daily official list of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).
Transaction proceedings on the bourse had started the week on a bearish note as the All Share Index (ASI) pared by 0.60 per cent to 26,691.09 points – the largest decline since October 9, 2019 – driven by losses in the banking stocks.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MtD) return moderated to +1.27 per cent, Year-to-Date (YtD) loss increased to -15.08 per cent, while investors lost N185 billion as market capitalisation closed yesterday’s trading to N12.882 trillion.
Tuesday’s session saw market bouncing back from Monday’s loss as the benchmark index rose by 0.18 per cent to 26,739.44 points, following buying interest in MTNN, UBA, and NB.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date return increased to +1.46 per cent while the Year-to-Date loss moderated to -14.93 per cent.
Following gains in NB, FBN Holdings and UBA, the ASI rose by 0.14 per cent to 26,776.15 points.
Consequently, YtD performance softened to -14.8 per cent while market capitalisation increased by N18 billion to N12.923 trillion on Wednesday.
Thursday’s session saw the benchmark index posting a gain of 0.36 per cent to close at 26,872.09 points owing to price appreciation in MTNN (+0.8%), Dangote Cement and GT Bank. YtD returns moderated to -14.5 per cent while market capitalisation increased by N46 billion to N12.969 trillion.
Friday’s session saw the ASI closing at 0.44 per cent to 26,991.42 points while market capitalisation depreciated by 0.34 per cent to close the week at N13.027 trillion.
All other indices finished higher with the exception of NSE Premium, NSE Banking, NSE-AFR Bank Value and NSE Industrial Goods indices, which declined by 0.49 per cent, 0.86 per cent 0.28 per cent and 2.25 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, a total turnover of 1.416 billion shares worth N17.249 billion in 20,303 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 2.084 billion shares valued at N33.867 billion that exchanged hands last week in 21,849 deals.
The Financial Services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 880.236 million shares valued at N8.089 billion traded in 12,488 deals; thus contributing 62.15 and 46.90 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerate industry followed with 283.854 million shares worth N1.587 billion in 841 deals while the third place was Consumer Goods industry with a turnover of 80.804 million shares worth N2.349 billion in 2,871 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely, UACN Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and Access Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 554.855 million shares worth N4.310 billion in 4,113 deals, contributing 39.18 and 24.98 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Forty equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 39 equities in the previous week. Twenty-three equities depreciated in price, higher than 11 equities in the previous week, while 102 equities remained unchanged, lower than 116 equities recorded in the preceding week.
A stockbroker who spoke to Sunday Sun explained that the current situation of the market is due to the fact that investors’ sentiment towards bellwethers has been strong while adding that this presents opportunity for more buys.
Analysts at Afrinvest said, “the local bourse is expected to sustain gains in the near term although sentiment still remains weak”.
For their part, analysts at Cordros Capital said: “In our view, the performance this week is a reaction to a limited outlet for investments given recent policy directives limiting domestic participation in the market. We expect that the market might continue to benefit over the short-term especially in the face of lower yields in the fixed income market”.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has officially delisted Dangote Flour Mills Plc from the daily official list.
A notification obtained from the NSE’s website said it was a result of the approval of the scheme of arrangement for the acquisition of the entire issued and fully paid ordinary shares of 50 kobo each in DFM held by Scheme Shareholders by Crown Flour Mills Limited which will ultimately lead to the delisting of Dangote Flour Mill Plc from the NSE. Consequently, the company was delisted from the daily official list of the Exchange on Monday, November 18, 2019.
