Tuesday saw another increase for the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), as equity investors bought into the market despite economic uncertainty. Following the quest for bargains, the stock market’s year-to-date return shot up, outpacing the annual inflation rate of 24.08%.
As the market saw a similar trend that began at the start of the week, other key performance indicators increased. A gain of 0.44% was recorded by the NGX All Share Index, which closed at 65,488.67 points.
Increased buy-side interest in noteworthy companies including BUAFOODS 7.91%, DANGSUGAR 3.89%, GUINNESS 2.81%, TRANSCORP 2.28%, and other listed securities was the main driver of this upward trend.
The index’s year-to-date return has increased to 27.78%, according to data from the local market, while the monthly returns have increased to 1.79%. The whole trade value increased by 3.26 percent to N4.12 billion. In addition, the transaction volume increased by 26.72%, with 5,895 trades for a total of 293.46 million units moved.
Activity increased as volume and value exchanged increased by 26.7%, 3.3%, and 293.5 million units, or 4.1 billion, respectively. Although favorably weighted, performance across covering sectors was uneven, with 3 indices rising and 2 indices falling, while the Industrial Goods index finished unchanged.
Due to price increases in BUAFOODS (+7.9%), DANGSUGAR (+3.9%), CORNERST (+9.8%), and CHIPLC (+3.5%), the Consumer Goods and Insurance indexes increased by 3.8% and 0.5%, respectively.
Trailing, the AFR-ICT index rose 1bp due to gains in CWG (+9.7%). Conversely, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices dipped 0.9% and 0.2% respectively, following losses in ACCESSCORP (-1.2%), UBA (-1.4%), and ETERNA (-4.8%).
Despite the uptrend, investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth, weakened to -0.14x versus 0.23x previously recorded as 16 listed companies stocks advanced, 26 declined, and 71 closed flat in the local bourse on Tuesday.
In the next trading session, Afrinvest expects a mild gain on the local bourse in the absence of any negative trigger. Overall, equities market capitalisation advanced by ₦156.7 billion to ₦35.8 trillion.
