The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) experienced a small rise in trading activity last week, with the All-Share Index climbing 1.12 percent week on week to 67,200.69 points.
The market capitalization of listed shares climbed by 1% week on week to N36.919 trillion, while the ASI’s year-to-date performance increased to 31.12%.
Cowry Assets Management Limited analysts stated in their weekly report, “Market remained in a consolidation range with low trading volume and a positive market breadth.” Despite macroeconomic policy concerns and company announcements of closed periods, the bullish trend was fueled by rising anticipation for the Q3 earnings season.”
In the previous week, four out of five trading days were bullish, resulting in N409 billion gains, mostly due to strong price moves in the Industrial goods index.
Sector performance was mostly positive, with the exception of the NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Banking, NGX AFR Bank Value, NGX MERI Growth, and NGX Sovereign Bond indices, which fell by 0.16 percent, 0.78 percent, 0.94 percent, 0.32 percent, and 0.56 percent, respectively, while the NGX Premium and NGX ASeM indices remained flat.
In terms of trading, approximately 1.470 billion shares worth N24.431 billion were traded in 29,683 transactions by investors on the exchange floor, compared to 2.410 billion shares worth N22.115 billion that changed hands.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 929.631 million shares valued at N12.948bn traded in 13,626 deals; thus contributing 63.25 per cent and 53.00 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Healthcare Industry followed with 171.236 million shares worth N334.792m in 452 deals. The third place was the Oil and Gas Industry, with a turnover of 90.156 million shares worth N5.099bn in 2,769 deals.
The top three stocks for the week include Access Holdings Plc, Neimeth International Pharmaceutical Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc (measured by volume) which accounted for 502.843 million shares worth N4.388bn exchanged in 3,117 deals, contributing 34.21 per cent and 17.96 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Some stocks, that displayed exceptional performance, with strong investor interest include BUA Cement, CHI Plc, Nigerian Breweries and Dangote Sugar with their share prices rising by +13 per cent, +13 per cent, +9 per cent, and +7 per cent, respectively.
On the downside, Prestige, Presco, Ecobank Transnational and Sterling HoldCo were on the losers chart for the week as their prices declined by -10 per cent, -10 per cent, -5 per cent, and -5 per cent, week-on-week, respectively.
Analysts at both Cowry Research and Arthur Stevens Assets Management project a week of mixed sentiments in the market, driven by both bargain hunting and portfolio repositioning.
However, the inflation figure for September expected to be released by the National Bureau of Statistics this week will be on the radar of equity investors, in addition to the release of Q3 corporate earnings reports of listed companies.
During the past week, the Central Bank of Nigeria lifted the ban on forex provision for cement, milk, maize and 40 other items after an eight-year ban.
This development comes days after Citigroup advised the apex bank to lift the ban in order to fix challenges plaguing the forex market. The CBN said the lifting of the embargo will boost liquidity in the forex market. It is expected that the lifting of the ban will elicit positive reactions from foreign investors.
