Following profit-taking actions on all trading days last week, except Friday, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) equity section shrank. After six weeks of gains, the local stock exchange ended up losing more over N150 billion overall.
By selectively choosing growth and value companies across important market indexes, alpha hunters continue to position themselves to lower inflation pressures on naira assets under management. Due to consistent dividend payments, the banking sector has had a purchasing boom, and some experts believe the sector is currently cheap.
Due to sell pressure on AIRTELAFRI (-5.3%), which caused the All-Share index to fall by 0.9% to 64,721.09 points, the local exchange was down. Due to this, the year-to-date performance fell, although it was still better than yearly inflation rate readings.
Trading patterns demonstrated that most investors booked gains in expensive and recognizable stocks. Market capitalization decreased last week from N35.57 trillion the week before to N35.42 trillion, according to data from the Exchange.
The All-Share Index’s (ASI) year-to-date return was negatively impacted by the weight loss. Year-to-date return moderated to 26.28% towards the end of the week.
The buy-side activity in significant companies including TRANSCORP 3.74%, DANGCEM 2.89%, PZ 2.65%, ACCESSCORP 1.80%, FCMB 1.69%, FBNH 0.80%, MTNN 0.22%, and other listed securities caused the market to turn positive on Friday.
The total trade value saw a substantial rise of 152.42%, reaching NGN 9.39 billion. Additionally, the trade volume also displayed an increase of 67.82%, with a cumulative total of 537.58 million units traded across 5,893 transactions.
The Consumer Goods and Industrial Goods sectors were notable gainers, posting week-on-week increases of 2.39% and 0.37% respectively. Key stocks like TRANSCORP, DANGSUGAR, CWG, CUTIX, and DANGCEM contributed to these gains.
Equally, the Insurance, Banking, and Oil & Gas sectors experienced declines of 2.17%, 2.06%, and 0.42% respectively. These sectors were impacted by cautious investor sentiment and sell-offs in select mid and high-cap stocks.
These stock experience selloffs ACCESSCORP, UNITYBNK, LASACO, and ETERNA, as investors meticulously evaluate the interplay of market and economic conditions. Trading activity remained subdued with low volumes and a bearish undertone, according to stockbrokers.
Data from the Nigerian Exchange showed that weekly deals decreased by 3.83% to 29,477 deals.
The average traded volume decreased by 2.98% to 1.69 billion units, while the weekly average value increased by 13.60% to N21.97 billion compared to the previous week’s N19.34 billion.
Amid the negative market breadth, certain stocks stood out. LINKASSURE (+18%), CORNERST (+10%), and WEMA (+8%) emerged as the top performers of the week, drawing the interest of astute investors. Stockbrokers said in their market updates that NEM (-10%), UNITYBNK (-10%), and ETERNA (-9%) faced declines due to unfavourable price movements.
