Market Index Jumps as Nigerian Exchange Gains N145bn
With a total sum of N145 billion record gain in a week, the equities segment of the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) continues its gaining streak and is more likely to remain so given local investors’ positive sentiments, according to stockbrokers.
Consequent to local investors’ penchant for growth stocks, the Nigerian stock market’s year-to-date return inched further to 8.87% from 8.35% last week on account of price appreciation in large and mid-cap companies’ shares.
Again, the local bourse extended its weekly gains for the third consecutive week as the benchmark index rose 0.5% Week on week to 55,794.51 points, according to data from NGX.
Amidst rising optimism, the weekly gain was spurred majorly by buy interest in Dangote Cement Plc, up 3.6%, supported by a 1.3% gain in MTN Nigeria and 2.3% in Union Bank of Nigeria (UBN)
In its market note, Afrinvest told clients that activity level varied as average volume traded dipped 46.4% to 204.6 million units while average value traded rose 9.7% week on week to ₦4.0 billion.
Stockbrokers said the most traded stocks by volume were TRANSCORP (210.1m units), GTCO (75.4m units), and ZENITH (42.9m units) while DANGCEM (₦2.7bn), GTCO (₦2.0bn), and ZENITH (₦1.1bn) led by value.
Performance across sectors under Afrinvest’s purview was mixed as 3 indices gained and lost apiece, the investment banking firm said in its market report.
The Industrial Goods index led the gainers, up 1.7%, driven by a price uptick in DANGCEM. Similarly, buy an interest in MANSARD (+5.0%), AIICO (+3.4%), and MTNN (+1.3%) pushed the Insurance and AFR-ICT indices up 0.7% and 0.6% w/w, respectively.
Conversely, the Oil & Gas index led the losers, down 3.8% w/w, due to selloffs in CONOIL (-18.9%) and ARDOVA (-8.1%). Also, the Banking and Consumer Goods indices fell 1.8% and 0.3% w/w respectively on the back of losses in UBA (-4.1%), UNITY (-3.7%), HONYFLOUR (-6.0%) and CHAMPION (-3.8%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, weakened to -0.2x from 0.4x in the prior week, as 22 stocks gained, 39 lost while 91 closed flat. JBERGER (+10.0%), TRANSEXP (+9.9%), and INTENEGI (+8.3%) led the top gainers while CONOIL (-18.9%), FTNCOCOA (-13.3%), and NCR (-10.8%) led the decliners.
Despite the downbeat investor sentiment, Afrinvest indicates an expectation that the market will trend upwards in the new week as investors continue to react to corporate earnings results.
“We expect a mixed trend to continue in the market as investors react to the dividend and position for the anticipated financials from primarily tier-1 banks”, Cowry Asset Management also told clients via email.
Overall, equities market capitalisation advanced ₦145 billion to ₦30.4 trillion as of Friday’s close. # Market Index Jumps as Nigerian Exchange Gains N145bn Naira Steadies as Banks Issue Update on FX Purchase
