During a bear festival that lasted for two of the three days, investors in stocks lost about N103 billion on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). Brokers claim that the benchmark index was prevented from rising by bears’ grasp during the brief trading session that followed Nigeria’s Islamic holiday.
As a result, the market index fell 0.18% weekly to 99,743.05 points as investors seeking market alpha continue to rebalance their portfolios. The overall volume and value of weekly deals both improved this week, indicating that trading activity remained on a good track.
According to separate data from stockbrokers, the weekly total traded value jumped drastically by 21.8% to N53.16 billion, while the weekly total traded volume increased by 25.4% to 3.30 billion units.
Nevertheless, there were 27,536 fewer trades made overall this week compared to last, a decrease of 18.3%. Investors were informed by Cowry Asset Limited in its market report that the Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas, and Industrial Goods indices showed mainly favorable sectoral performance.
According to the NGX market report, the industrial index increased by 0.10% during the week, while the consumer goods index increased by 0.29%. The oil and gas index gained 0.21%. A number of stocks, including GUINNESS, PRESCO, ETERNA, CHAMPION, CUTIX, and TOTAL, according to stockbrokers.
On the contrary, investors dumped financial stocks last week due to risk off sentiment that has persisted following notice of banking sector recapitalisation. The insuance and banking indices, pared last week’s gains by 1.31% and 0.04% respectively on the back of negative price movements in VFDGROUP, FBNH, AIICO, FIDELITYBNK and MANSARD.
The top performing stocks in the week include VERITASKAP (+64%), CHAMS (+56%), GUINNESS (+41%), DEAPCAP (+40%), and PRESCO (+34%). Conversely, negative investor sentiment led to sell-offs in MAYBAKER (-14%), ETRANZACT (-11%), INTENEGINS (-10%), and NASCON (-10%), positioning these stocks as the top losers for the week, Cowry Asset said.
In the new week, stockbrokers expect the local bourse to trade in mixed sentiment on the back of low valuation and portfolio repositioning for value stocks as investors continue to exhibit a wait and see approach.
As trading volume patterns continue to fluctuate, suggesting buying interest in some sectors and profit-taking in others amidst a wait-and-see attitude among market players, Cowry Asset advised investors to trade in stocks of companies with sound fundamentals.
Overall, a total of N103.08 billion was lost by equity investors from two out of the three sessions this week while the year-to-date return of the index moderated to 33.39%.
