The equities sector on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) rose more than N60 billion despite four days of record bear trading in the week just ended. The market was dominated by selling in four out of five trading sessions, according to trading data. However, investor interest in Airtel Africa pushed the market index higher.
The market sold major tickers ahead of the earnings season. Some value hunters and alpha seekers take positions in both growth and value stocks. Many rising stocks in the financial services sector have started to let go of profit-taking. MarketForces Africa, in particular, reported a decline in the popularity of Tier 1 banks, which had been on a strong upward trend.
As a result, the Nigerian Exchange All-Shares Index (NGX-ASI) rose 0.2% to close at 55,930.57 points, helped by a 42 basis point gain on Tuesday, according to Afrinvest Limited. On a weekly basis, activity levels were subdued with average trading volume and value down 32.0% and 21.2% respectively to 439.3 million units and £9.2 billion.
As of the weekend, ETERNA was up 45%, closely followed by UNITYBNK up 44% and FTNCOCOA up 41%. Meanwhile, RTBRISCOE lost 11% of its market valuation and COURTVILLE lost 10%, a similar trend seen with MULTIVERSE. Stocks up 10 degrees – leader in weekly charts for laggards.
From a sectoral perspective, the insurance index rose 13.9%. The largest gains were recorded by the oil and gas index (+3.4%), the banking index (+1.1%) and the consumer goods index (+0.1%).
On the other hand, the industrial product index fell (-1.3%). The overall market capitalization has increased by £60.1bn to £30.5tn, with year-to-date yields improving to 9.1% from 8.9% last week.
