The Nigerian stock market saw its first weekly gain in April following a N3.54tn loss. After six weeks of negative transactions, it made N812 billion last week as investors sought higher rates on other markets. Announcements from corporations outlining their annual general meetings did not inspire many investors.
When the bearish run ended, the majority of banking stocks had suffered greatly, and every new member of the N1 trillion market capitalization club had left as their market caps fell. As the bulls dominated three of the four trading sessions last week, investors saw a gain of N812 billion at the close of business.
The benchmark index increased to 99,587.25 points, a weekly gain of 1.46 percent, propelled by buying enthusiasm in several of the high tickers as well as blue-chip companies with strong fundamentals.
Corporations’ impressive Q1 financial performance and the beginning of the dividend earnings season have resulted in a 1.46 per cent increase in market capitalisation to N56.32tn over the past week.
As a result, the market cap’s year-to-date return increased to 33.2%. Last week’s turnover of shares was 1.941 billion, valued at N32.64 billion, in 35,807 trades. The prior week’s turnover was 1.839 billion, valued at N34.26 billion, in 37,528 deals.
With 1.496 billion shares worth N22.45 billion moved in 19,225 deals, the financial services sector topped the trading activity measured by volume. This accounted for 77.08 percent of the overall stock turnover volume and 68.78 percent of its value.
Following with 144.722 million shares valued at N5.063 billion in 4,966 transactions was the consumer goods sector. The conglomerate industry came in third position with 109.978 million shares valued at N1.539 billion in turnover in 2,064 deals.
Top traded equities included Abbey Mortgage Bank, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company and Access Holdings. When measured by volume, they accounted for 898.940 million shares worth N14.314bn in 5,518 deals, contributing 46.31 per cent and 43.85 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
On the sectoral front, performance was largely mixed as the Banking and Insurance indexes led the gainers by 9.42 per cent and 0.98 per cent week-on-week, driven by strong interest by investors in financial stocks, which resulted in positive price movements in FBN Holdings, Wema Bank, Sterling Financial Holding Company, Sovereign Insurance and Axa Mansard.
Trailing on the losers table were the oil & gas (0.68 per cent), industrial goods (0.36 per cent) and consumer goods indexes, which were dragged down by negative price movements in NASCON Allied Industries, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Sugar, Seplat, Eterna and Berger, respectively.
At the close of the week, the best-performed stocks included FBNH (32.68 per cent), Sterling Financial Holding Company (27.75 per cent) and UAC Nigeria (24.60 per cent) as their share prices trended upward due to positive interest from investors. However, the worst-performing stocks for the week were NASCON (-17.03 per cent), University Press Plc (-16.67 per cent) and Neimeth Pharma Plc (-14.14 per cent).
Analysts expect the bullish sentiments into the new week, to be driven by the earning season.
