In Five Days, Investors Stake N27.9bn On Equities

At the end of last week’s transactions on the equities sector of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), a turnover of 1.39 billion shares worth N27.9 billion was recorded in 19,990 deals by investors.

This volume of shares traded was higher than 1.471 billion units worth N20.94 billion that exchanged hands in 20,410 deals on November 12, 2021.

A breakdown of transactions, last week, showed that the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.08 billion shares valued at N11.6 billion traded in 11,612 deals, thus, contributing 78 per cent to the total equities turnover.

The consumer goods industry followed with 105.8 million shares worth N11.8 billion in 2,657 deals.

The conglomerate industry ranked third with a turnover of 56.1 million shares worth N73.6 million in 575 deals.

Trading in the top three equities namely FBN Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Sterling Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 638.3 million shares worth N8.5 billion in 4,116 deals, contributing 45.9 per cent.

The market recorded losses on four of the five trading sessions following profit-taking activities.

Notably, profit-taking in Total, GTCO, FBNH and NB drove the weekly loss while sectoral performance was broadly bearish as all sectors closed in the red.

The Oil and Gas (-3.6 per cent) led the losers’ chart followed by Banking (-1.6 per cent), Consumer Goods (-1.4 per cent), Insurance (-0.5 per cent), and Industrial Goods (-0.1 per cent) indices.

Reacting to market performance last week, analysts at Cordros Capital said: “In the week ahead, we expect a mixed market performance as the bulls and bears are likely to be in gridlock due to the opposing forces of bargain-hunting activities in stocks with attractive dividend yields ahead of 2021FY dividend declarations and intermittent profit-taking activities.

“Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings. ”

Further breakdown of last week’s trading indicated that a total of 54,936 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) worth N481.4 were traded last week in 19 deals up from a total of 23,297 units valued at N792, 386.34 transacted during the preceding week in 34 deals.

Also, a total of 65,606 units of bond valued at N68.5 million were traded last week in nine deals compared with a total of 56,655 units valued at N60.8 million transacted in 26 deals during the preceding week.

Consequently, the NGX All-share index and market capitalisation depreciated by 0.1 per cent to close the week at 43,199.27 and N22.55 trillion respectively.