Stockholders Gain N168bn as Economy Expands
Nigerian listed stocks gain more than N168 billion as of Friday’s close due to heavy bargain hunting in the local bourse. The growth comes as the National Bureau of Statistics reported that Nigeria’s gross domestic product expands by 3.54% in the second quarter of 2022.
Due to heavy bargain hunting on value stocks, the NGX market capitalisation inched higher 0.63% above the previous week to N26.8 trillion from N26.63 trillion. Year-to-date return inched to 16.31% on Friday as investors gained N168.02 billion in 3 out of 5 sessions.
In the week, NEM Insurance shares gained 31% while Japaul Gold share price appreciated by 17% while Honeywell Flour did 12%, Stanbic IBTC surged 9% and Airtel Africa pops 7%. READ: Stock Market Return Falls below Inflation as Investors Lost N868bn
Across the sectorial front, Cowry Asset Management said the market performance was tepid as four out of five indexes lost safe the Insurance Index which saw overwhelming appreciation.
NGX Insurance index gained 3.88%- the lone gainer of the week due to gains in NEM and Mutual Benefits Assurance -Ticker: MBENEFITs. On the other hand, the NGX Industrial Goods declined by 0.87%.
Meanwhile, NGX Consumer Goods also shed 1.73%, NGX Banking dipped 0.69% and NGX Oil and Gas went down by 4.08% – topping weekly losses from sell-offs.
Market data shows that trading activities in the week were upbeat as the total traded volume advanced 15.32% week on week to 914.44 million units. Also, the total weekly traded value rose by 1.75% to N12.08 billion and then the total deals for the week inched (6.88%) to 18,021 from 16,861 last week.
The top traded stocks by volume were MBENEFIT which traded 139.0m units, FBNH 70.2m units, and UBA 52.3m units while MTNN (₦1.8bn), ZENITH (₦1.1bn), and AIRTELAF (₦1.0bn) led trade by value.
Stockbrokers predict that positive trading in heavyweights is expected to buoy trading activities as investors continue their bargain hunting activities in the local bourse next week. # Stockholders Gain N168bn as Economy Expands
