THE fortunes of equity investors improved dramatically during the last week, with a massive N1.2 trillion gain achieved in just five trading sessions. The surge pushed market indicators higher, and the year-to-date return surpassed 24%.
According to market statistics, the Nigerian Exchange All-Share index rose 4.2 percent at the closing of trading sessions compared to the previous week’s high due to continued purchasing interest in value and growth companies.
Also based on the Nigerian Exchange report, which suggested that foreign portfolio investment slows, a flood of cold money returns to the equities space following the exits of foreign investors in the market.
The equities index finished the week above 53,000, with a year-to-date return of 24.3 percent, up from 19.2 percent. The equities market capitalisation increased to 28.63 trillion dollars, a new high.
Stockbrokers at Afrinvest Limited said in a market report that activity was down 32.1 percent and 17.7 percent week on week, respectively, to 361.9 million units and 5.4 billion dollars.
Positive trading sentiment boosted the market index to more than 53,000 points on Friday.
However, according to Atlass portfolios, the market capitalization increased by 98 billion as a result of bargain-hunting in the Oil & Gas and Banking sectors.
As a result, the Nigerian All-Share Index increased 182.45 basis points to 53,100.21, indicating a 0.34 percent increase. In the meantime, market activity was bearish, with total volume and value trade down 28.76 percent and 37.25 percent, respectively.
Traders said that 7,019 transactions totaled 303.48 million units worth $3.57 billion. TRANSCORP was the most actively traded stock in terms of volume, accounting for 12.52 percent of all trades.
JAIZBANK (10.67 percent), WAPCO (4.94 percent), GTCO (4.61 percent), and OANDO (4.29 percent) rounded out the top five companies on the volume ranking.
WAPCO looked to be the most traded stock in terms of value on the chart, accounting for 13.30 percent of the total value of trades on the exchange. With a price increase of 9.94% each, NNFM topped the advancers’ list.
FLOURMILL (9.22 percent), SEPLAT (8.33 percent), BUAFOODS (5.27 percent), ZENITHBANK (2.08 percent), AFRIPRUD (1.72 percent), UCAP (1.50 percent), GTCO (1.27 percent), DANGSUGAR (1.17 percent), UNILEVER (0.71 percent), ACCESSCORP (0.52 percent), and seventeen (17) other companies trailed the stock closely.
According to market statistics, twenty-eight (28) stocks respectively depreciated, with CHAMPION leading the pack at 9.90% depreciation to close at $4.37. INTBREW (-9.74 percent), STANBIC (-5.71 percent), GLAXOSMITH (-5.39 percent), JAPAULGOLD (-3.23 percent), FBNH (-2.05 percent), PZ (-1.69 percent), OANDO (-1.31 percent), WAPCO (-1.10 percent), HONYFLOUR (-1.06 percent), NGXGROUP (-1.06 percent) were among the losers (-0.21 percent ).
Overall, market breadth was even, with 28 gainers and 28 losers, while sector performance was negative. Insurance (-1.31 percent), Consumer Goods (-0.46 percent), and Industrial Goods (-0.46 percent) were the three sectors that closed worse than the previous session (-0.07 percent ).
The oil and gas and banking sectors, respectively, increased by 4.84 percent and 1.22 percent.
