Stock Market Gains N118.5bn as Value Hunters Drive Rally
In the equities segment of the Nigerian Exchange, NGX, there was demand for growth stocks in the just concluded week, according to trading data from the local bourse.
The local bourse turns positive after four weeks of bearish tone as investors’ interest in banking stocks waned, especially there were selloffs on Nigerian big banks stocks over the period.
The increased bargain hunting activities pushed key performance indicators higher despite higher spot rates by the Central Bank of Nigeria at the Treasury bills primary market auction midweek.
Trading results indicate that the domestic equities market closed the week on a positive note as the All-Share Index rose 0.5% week on week to settle at 47,569.04 points.
Accordingly, year to date return inched higher to 11.4% from 10.9% in the previous week while market capitalisation gained ₦118.53 billion to close the week at ₦25.9 trillion.
In its market note, Afrinvest stock traders said activity level diverged as average volume traded declined 16.2% to 122.9 million units in the week while average value traded strengthened by 34.9% to ₦3.0 billion.
The top traded stocks by volume were GTCO which transacted 121.5 million units, MBENEFIT did 47.7 million units, and 41.9 million units of FBNH were traded. READ:NGX Rises as Value Hunters Take Positions
In terms of value traded, AIRTELAF did ₦2.4 billion followed closely by DANGCEM with ₦2.1 billion and GTCO ₦2.1 billion.
The Industrial Goods index led gainers, up 3.2% week on week due to buying interest in BUACEMENT which gained 8.7%. Similarly, price uptick in UNITYBNK (+4.9%), JAIZBANK (+4.7%), WAPIC (+9.4%), and SOVRENINS (+7.7%) pushed the Banking and Insurance indices higher by 1.9% and 1.7% w/w respectively.
Conversely, the Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices lost 2.1% and 0.7% week on wee respectively due to selloffs in SEPLAT (-4.0%), OANDO (-0.4%), CADBURY (-6.9%), and INTBREW (-5.3%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, strengthened to 0.0x from -0.4x recorded last week as 24 stocks gained, 22 lost while 106 were unchanged.
The top outperforming stocks for the week were MAYBAKER (+13.8%), IKEJAHOT (+9.7%), and NEIMETH (+9.5%) while UACN (-12.2%), FTNCOCOA (-10.0%), and GSPECPLC (-9.8%) were the top underperforming stocks.
For this week, Afrinvest market analysts project a muted performance in the local bourse barring any positive catalyst.
Stocks traders at Atlass Portfolios expect mixed sentiment to continue from investors as investors also await the release of the Q3 financial statements by listed companies.
Cowry Asset Management analysts anticipate a sustained bullish trend as investors adopt cautious trading styles and continue scaling down on exposures to equities.
# Stock Market Gains N118.5bn as Value Hunters Drive Rally#
