Stock Market Ends January With N1.13trn Gain

Trading activities on the floor of the Nigerian stock market finished the month of January impressive to emerge the best performing exchange in Africa.

Available data revealed that activities on the Nigerian Stock Exchange which opened the trading year at N21.06tn in market capitalisation and 40,270.72 in index at the beginning of trading on January 4, 2021 closed the month at N22.19tn and 42,412 index points, hence earned a year to date gain of about N1.13tn or 5.3 per cent year to date.

According to Bloomberg report, the index kept a clean sheet all week, up +58bps on Friday, and +3.44 per cent w/w.

Equities ended the month +5.32 per cent firmer. In USD terms (+7.10 per cent), the NSE ranked 7th, according to Bloomberg World Equities Index ranking.

Oil and gas stocks finally halted the weeklong losing streak to finish higher, +0.63 per cent – Ardova +8.57 per cent and Oando +2.50 per cent providing support. All other sectors also finished in green, save for industrials, with a marginal decline of -8bps.

Turnover last week stayed impressive, with a daily average of $14.53mn.

On Friday, investors traded a total of $17.18m. Zenith retained the top spot on the activity chart with $3.20m traded.

Other notable volumes were MTN $2.47m; GTB $1.84m and Wapco $1.56m. Trading was skewed mostly towards domestic investors.

Meanwhile, the NSE All-Share Index and market capitalisation both appreciated by 3.442 per cent to close last week at 42,412.66 and N22.18tn respectively.

Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NSE Oil/Gas which depreciated by 7.25 per cent while the NSE ASeM and NSE Growth Indices closed flat

A total turnover of 2.57bn shares worth N27.88bn in 31,466 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the exchange, in contrast to a total of 4.29bn shares valued at N25.99bn that exchanged hands the previous week in 32,849 deals.