The Nigerian equities market maintained its positive trajectory last week, as the local bourse peaked highest in 13 years.
Specifically, the benchmark index of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed the week past 45,000 basis points to settle at 45,957.35 basis points at the end of trading activities on Friday.
The stocks market hit a 13-year high having experienced four straight days of solid gains rallying to hit the highest mark since 2008.
Market Capitalization of the local bourse settled at N24.761 trillion as investors earned N810 billion during the week, just as All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 3.38 per cent Week-on-Week (WoW) to close at 45,957.35 points.
Given the bullish sentiment, most sector gauges tracked closed in green. Particularly, the NGX Oil & Gas, NGX Banking, NGX Consumer Goods index and the NGX Industrial indices rose by 5.21 per cent, 1.66 per cent, 1.03 per cent and 4.37 per cent respectively to close at 379.17 points, 419.14 points, 564.47 points and 2,178.09 points respectively. On the flip side, the NGX Insurance index lost 0.24 per cent to close at 192.71 points.
The market breadth for the week was positive as 47 equities appreciated at price, 23 equities depreciated in price, while 86 equities remained unchanged. Courteville Business Solutions led the gainers’ table by 24.32 per cent to close at 46 kobo, per share. Northern Nigeria Flour Mills (NNFM) followed with a gain of 20.61 per cent to close at N7.90, while Eterna went up by 13.19 per cent to close to N6.35, per share.
On the other side, Veritas Kapital Assurance and Regency Assurance led the decliners table by 8.70 per cent each to close at 21 kobo and 42 kobo, respectively, per share. NEM Insurance followed with a loss of 6.57 per cent to close at N3.70, while Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) declined by 5.26 per cent to close at N1.08, per share.
Overall, a total turnover of 1.858 billion shares worth N47.486 billion in 20,861 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.600 billion shares valued at N32.716 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 22,607 deals.
Giving a forecast of what to expect in the week, analysts maintained thumbs up as they expect the stock market to continue in the green zone amid positive investors sentiments.
Analysts at Cordros Securities Limited and Cowry Assets Management Limited believe investors will be focused on the outcome of the MPC meeting to gain further clarity on the movement of yields in the fixed income (FI) market.
“Consequently, we expect a ‘choppy theme’ as cautious trading will likely dominate the market. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings,” Cordros stated in its report.
“In the new week, we expect the equities market index to move northward amid positive investor’s sentiment. Investors are expected to invest more in the equities market if MPC holds rate constant,” Cowry report said.
