Follow Us on Google
by Chinwendu Obienyi
Despite the prevailing bearish sentiments that dominated Nigeria’s stock market, equity investors executed trades in 938.020 million shares worth N16.701 billion in 15,700 deals at the close of trading last week.
Daily Sun investigations observed that local stocks logged their steepest decline in the year following bouts of profit-taking activities during the trading week.
As a result, the All-Share Index (ASI) declined by 6.67 per cent week-on-week (w/w), to close at 44,396.73 points — its lowest point since January 18, 2022 (44,655.89 points). Particularly, sell-offs in Airtel Africa, MTNN and Wapco underpinned the market’s performance.
Furthermore, market capitalization lost a whooping N1.73 trillion w/w to close at N24.182 trillion from an opening value of N25.910 trillion.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MTD) loss increased to -9.4 per cent, while the Year-to-Date (YTD) return moderated significantly to +3.9 per cent.
Sectoral performance was mixed as the Industrial Goods (+3.2 per cent), and Banking (+1.2 per cent) indices advanced, while the Insurance (-3.7 per cent), Oil and Gas (-1.5 per cent), and Consumer Goods (-0.9 per cent) indices declined.
However, activity levels were positive, as trading volume and value increased by 90.7 per cent w/w and 40.1 per cent w/w, respectively as against a total of 491.815 million shares valued at N11.922 billion that exchanged hands in the previous trading week in 14,350 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely CWG Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 490.324million shares worth
N2.905 billion in 2,860 deals, contributing 52.27 per cent and 17.39 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Meanwhile, the Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 501.278 million shares valued at N5.080 billion traded in 8,279 deals; thus contributing 53.44 per cent and 30.42 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The ICT Industry followed with 316.347 million shares worth N8.729 billion in 1,249 deals while the Oil and Gas Industry, recorded a turnover of 28.244 million shares worth N983.561 million in 846 deals.
Commenting on the performance of the market, analysts at Cordros Research, said that with the significant moderation in the prices of bellwether stocks this week, they expect savvy investors to take advantage of this and make a re-entry into stocks with sound fundamentals and attractive dividend yields.
“However, we do not rule out the possibility of continued profit-taking activities. As a result, we envisage a choppy trading pattern. Nonetheless, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”, they said.
