By Chinwendu Obienyi
Owing to strong demand for the shares of Transpower, FBN Holdings and MTNN, positive sentiments returned to Nigeria’s stock market as its All Share Index (ASI) grew by 2.61 per cent to close at 101,330.85 points from the previous week’s close of 98,751.91 basis points.
Similarly, the market capitalization of listed equities experienced a robust 6.03 per cent week-on-week (w/w) increase, reaching N57.29 trillion from the previous weeks N54.03 trillion. As such, investors gained N3.3 trillion.
Trading data for the week revealed that investors on the local bourse traded a total of 2.157 billion shares valued at N108.82 billion in 51,556 deals this week. This represents a 14.6 per cent increase when compared to last week’s figures of 1.882 billion shares worth N34.149 billion that were traded in 48,464 deals.
The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart by volume, with 899.483 million shares valued at N15.778 billion that were exchanged in 20,278 deals. This contributed 41.70 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and 14.50 per cent to its value. Following closely was the Conglomerates Industry, with 736.973 million shares worth N12.902 billion traded in 4,996 deals. The Utilities Industry secured the third position with a turnover of 208.511 million shares valued at N65.746 billion in 5,602 deals.
Trading in the top three equities, namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Transcorp Power Plc, and United Bank for Africa Plc, accounted for 1.056 billion shares worth N78.770 billion in 12,167 deals. These equities contributed 48.97 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and 72.38 per cent to its value.
All other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Banking, NGX Insurance, NGX AFR Bank Value, NGX MERI Growth, NGX MERI Value, NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Sovereign Bond.
Despite the impressive performance for the week, analysts predict that expectations from economic data releases, particularly the upcoming Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, coupled with ongoing portfolio rebalancing activities may shift investors interest towards fixed income.
Looking ahead, analysts at Cowry Research “Anticipates the prevailing bullish sentiment to persist in the market during the coming week. This expectation is based on the anticipation of more corporate announcements and continued portfolio rebalancing by investors seeking alpha.”