Despite election anxiety, the Nigerian stock market rose by around N624 billion on Friday, nearly tripling the size of the local exchange. Prior to the election on Saturday, purchasing activity in bellwether stocks drove the market’s increase.
On the Tickers: AIRTELAF, BUAFOODS, and DANGCEM, purchasing activity was sparked by the bullish emotion that was seen. The positive price changes drove the Nigerian Exchange up 2.1% week over week to 54,949.21 points.
The stock market’s top market mover, telecom operator Airtel Africa, increased 3.8% last week. BUA Foods contributed 15.6% of the share appreciation to the positive sentiment, and Dangote Cement gained 0.7%.
Afrinvest stated in a market report that performance across all of the sectors it covers was mainly optimistic, with the exception of the Insurance index, which finished flat.
According to the investing business, price increases in BUAFOODS (+15.6%), FLOURMILL (+3.7%), and CONOIL (+20.9%) were the main drivers of the Consumer Goods and Oil & Gas indexes’ respective weekly gains of 6.3% and 2.7%.
According to Afrinvest, purchasing activity in ZENITH (+3.0%), FIDELITY (+6.1%), AIRTELAF (+3.8%), and CWG (+19.8%) led to a 2.2% and 2.0% week-over-week increase in the Banking and AFR-ICT indexes, respectively.
In addition, the Industrial Goods index increased by 0.3% week over week, driven by advances in TRIPPLEG (+31.7%) and DANGCEM (+0.7%). Market breadth, a measure of investor mood, increased to 0.2x from 0.1x the previous week as 38 stocks increased, 22 decreased, and 92 finished unchanged.
According to market experts, the major gainers were JOHNHOLT (+32.3%), TRIPPLEG (+31.7%), and CONOIL (+20.9%), while the leading losers were CAPHOTEL (-9.4%), VITAFOAM (-7.2%), and NEIMETH (-6.5%).
According to market statistics, the average weekly volume and value traded declined to 134.9 million units and 3.4 billion, respectively, by 10.3% and 18.1%. By volume, the most actively traded equities were GTCO (88.9 million units), ZENITH (69.8 million units), and UBA (46.0 million units), while AIRTELAF (4.4 billion), GTCO (2.2 billion), and ZENITH (1.8 billion) led by value.
Despite the upbeat investor sentiment, stockbrokers and market analysts anticipate cautious trading next week as post-election developments unravel. Overall, stock market capitalisation expanded ₦623.6 billion to ₦29.9 trillion while year-to-date return improved to 7.2%.
