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By Chinwendu Obienyi
Owing to strong buying interests in the shares of tier-1 banking stocks such as GTCO, Zenith Bank and telecom giants, MTNN, transaction proceedings on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) sustained the previous week’s gain, rising by 3.71 per cent.
The market had closed the previous week’s trading in positive territory, but at the end of the week, the All Share Index (ASI) grew by 3.71 per cent to close at 105,085.25 points. Similarly, the overall market capitalisation experienced a 0.99 per cent uptick, reaching N59.416 trillion as investors saw their wealth grow by N582 billion.
Consequently, the Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) returns increased to +5.1 per cent and +40.5 per cent, respectively. However, activity levels remained weak as trading volume and value declined by 17.8 per cent w/w and 51.4 per cent w/w, respectively. A total turnover of 1.773 billion shares worth N52.867 billion in 44,713 deals was traded by investors on the floor of the exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.157 billion shares valued at N108.824 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 51,556 deals.
Also, sectoral performance was mixed, as the Banking (+12.8 per cent), Insurance (+2.5 per cent), Consumer Goods (+1.4%) and Industrial Goods (+0.2%) indices advanced, while the Oil & Gas (-0.1%) index declined.
Reacting to the development, analysts at Cordros Research, said, “We expect investors to continue to cherry-pick fundamentally sound stocks, given the absence of any significant positive catalysts. However, the awaited earnings releases from the banks and accompanying dividend declarations may catalyse another rush of positive sentiments, supporting buying activities on the bourse”.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.136 billion shares valued at N23.185 billion traded in 19,896 deals; thus contributing 64.04 per cent and 43.86 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates industry followed with 339.390 million shares worth N5.874 billion in 3,650 deals while the Consumer Goods Industry recorded a turnover of 82.645 million shares worth N6.724 billion in 6,155 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 677.439 million shares worth N17.287 billion in 7,789 deals, contributing 38.21 per cent and 32.70 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
