Nigeria’s equities market was investors’ delight as it rounded off activities in the fifth month of the year.
At the end of the last weekday of trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NGX) Friday, a total of 455,760,646 shares in 7,457 deals, corresponding to a market value of NGN 6,117,545,328.59, were traded.
Compared with the previous NGX trading day (Thursday, June 1), Friday’s data shows 17% improvement in volume, 7% improvement in turnover, but 3% decline in deals. Market capitalisation closed at N30.394 trillion as against N30.387 trillion, yielding a marginal gain of N7 billion.
In the aggregate, 116 NGX listed equities participated in trading, ending with 29 gainers and 28 losers. Stanbic IBTC Holdings led the gainers with 10% share price appreciation closing at NGN 44.00 per share, followed by MRS Oil Nigeria (+9.92%), Conoil (+9.73%) and Eterna (+9.47%).
On the losing side, FTN Cocoa Processors came out last with an end-of-day price depreciation of 9.59% at NGN 0.66 per share, followed by UPDC (-8.93%), Chams (-8.89%) and Mutual Benefits Assurance (-7.69%). FBN Holdings recorded the highest volume of 103 million traded shares, followed by Access Holdings (55.7m), United Bank for Africa (48.8m) and Zenith Bank (21.9m).
On a weekly basis, a total turnover of 2.586 billion shares worth N46.643 billion in 35,122 deals was traded this
week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.963 billion shares valued at N33.899 billion that exchanged hands last week in 30,827 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.890 billion shares valued at N23.041 billion traded in 17,806 deals; thus contributing 73.10% and 49.40% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry followed with 170.218 million shares worth N638.188 million in 1,830 deals. The third place was the Consumer Goods Industry, with a turnover of 132.432 million shares worth N3.837 billion in 4,938 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Access Holdings Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and FBN Holding (measured by volume) accounted for 915.908 million shares worth N10.916 billion in 6,575 deals, contributing 35.42% and 23.40% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Analysts at Cordros Securities said of the week’s performance, “We envisage extended bargain hunting in the coming week as investors continue to digest the policy direction of the new administration. However, we do not rule out intermittent profit-taking activities.
“In the medium term, we expect investors’ sentiments to be influenced by developments in the macroeconomic landscape and the movement of yields in the fixed-income space.
“Lastly, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
