The total worth of stocks investors on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) increased by around N120 billion due to bargain hunting, which pushed key indicators higher.
Despite rising interest rates, investors remain focused on the equity market ahead of earnings season, despite the strong yield on fixed-interest securities investments.
The Lagos bourse All-share index (ASI) climbed 0.21% to close at 98,458.68 points on Friday, up from 98,247.99 the previous week.
Stockbrokers said that bulls dominated three of the five trading sessions. Market capitalization increased to ₦56.7 trillion, with a year-to-date return of 31.7%, up from 31.4% the week before.
Activity level varied on weekly comparison basis as average volume traded rose 42.7% to 663.7 million units while average value traded fell 4.5% to ₦9.2 billion.
The volume chart was led by FIDELITYBK (305.7 million units), TRANSCORP (256.9 million units), and UBA (160.4 million units). Meanwhile in terms of value traded, FIDELITYBK (₦4.9 billion), FBNH (₦4.7 billion), and UBA (₦4.1 billion) topped the chart.
The gaining streak was driven by positive momentum in ELLAHLAKES (+59.74%), REGALINS (+53.33%), and FLOURMILL (+22.89%). Other gainers include FIDELITY (+10.3%), UBA (+6.2%), SUNUASSU (+9.2%), and PRESTIGE (+4.0%).
The losers chart was led by CAVERTON (-27.37%), MULTIVERSE (- 19.64%) and OKOMUOIL (-13.10%).
In a market report, Afrinvest Capital Limited said AFR-ICT and Consumer Goods indices lost 1.5% and 0.1% owing to price depreciation in MTNN (-4.4%), CHAMS (-3.3%), CARDBURY (-9.4%), and INTBREW (-8.9%). instrument declined by 35bps to 22.6%.
Sectoral performance was mixed, as 2 sector indices closed positive. The Oil and Gas (+3.28%), Banking (+2.45%) and Insurance (+1.43%) indices advanced due to buying interest in SEPLAT (+10.00%), UBA (+6.19%) and MANSARD (+1.85%), respectively.
Conversely, the Consumer Goods (-0.15%) and Industrial Goods (-0.04%) indices closed in the red following sell-offs in INTBREW (-8.86%) and WAPCO (-0.68%), respectively.
Overall, the equities market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange increased by about N120 billion week-on-week, indicating a positive change of 0.21% to close at N56.58 trillion.
