By Chinwendu Obienyi
Nigeria’s stock market fared better than their counterparts amid renewed appetite for stocks pushed its All Share Index (ASI) up by 2.13 per cent to close the trading week at 54,949.21 points.
Daily Sun investigations tracking the performance of other global equities markets revealed that trading activities were largely bearish on the back of underwhelming economic data and negative inflation outlook in the US. Accordingly, US equities (DJIA: -2.0 per cent; S&P 500: -1.6 per cent) retreated as the focus remained on the Fed’s comments on interest-rate outlook.
For instance, France’s CAC 40, Germany’s XETRA DAX, and UK’s FTSE All Share indices dipped 1.5 per cent, 1.2 per cent, and 1.4 per cent week-on-week (w/w) respectively. However, bargain-hunting activities in Airtel Africa (+3.9 per cent), BUA Foods (+15.6 per cent) and Geregu (+13.8 per cent) spurred the weekly gain.
Furthermore, the NGX market capitalization rose by N624 billion to close at N29.934 billion from an opening value of N29.310 billion. Sectoral performance was broadly positive as the Consumer Goods (+6.3 per cent), Oil and Gas (+2.7 per cent), Banking (+2.2 per cent) and Industrial Goods (+0.3 per cent) indices recorded gains while the Insurance index closed flat.
A total turnover of 799.848 million shares worth N29.354 billion in 14,194 deals was traded by investors on the floor of the exchange, in contrast to a total of 751.990 million shares valued at N20.575 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 15,822 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 480.122 million shares valued at N6.129 billion traded in 6,319 deals; thus contributing 60.03 per cent and 20.88 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Utilities Industry followed with 126.882 million shares worth N12.940 billion in 289 deals while the ICT Industry recorded a turnover of 54.012 million shares worth N5.930 billion in 1,575 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Geregu Power Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Zenith Bank Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 307.755 million shares worth N17.489 billion in 2,325 deals, contributing 38.48 per cent and 59.58 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.