At the end of last week’s trading, investors on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited transacted 19,025 deals for 1.4 billion shares worth N15.5 billion (NGX).
However, the number of shares moved was more than the 598.8 million shares worth N14.2 billion that were transacted in 15,859 transactions on October 28, 2022.
The financial services sector dominated the activities, as defined by volume, with 804.5 million shares valued at N6.3 billion in 9,922 deals, making up 57.04% of the overall stock turnover volume and value, respectively.
The conglomerate business came in third with a turnover of 68.309 million shares worth N97 million in 530 deals, while the agriculture industry came in second with 357.6 million shares worth N287.9 million in 560 deals.
Trading in the top three stocks, Access Holdings Plc, FTN Cocoa Processors Plc, and Fidelity Bank Plc, contributed 56.76% of the turnover with 800.622 million shares worth N3.4 billion in 2,051 deals.
On the price movement chart, positive mood helped the local stock market perform better as investors resumed their search for bargains in Dangote Cement (+8.8%) and BUA Cement (+2.9%), which fueled the upturn.
As a result, the market capitalization and All-Share Index both increased by 0.8% to end the week at 44,269.18 and N24.112 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX-Main Board, NGX CG, NGX Banking, NGX Pension, NGX Insurance, NGX-AFR Bank Value, NGX MERI Value, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil and Gas and NGX Sovereign Bond indices. They depreciated by 0.44 per cent, 0.27 per cent, 1.87.per cent, 0.44.per cent, 1.35 per cent, 0.79 per cent, 0.98 per cent, 2.32 per cent, 5.37 per cent and 1.36 per cent respectively.
Ambrose Omordion, the Chief Research Officer of Investdata Consulting Limited, responded to the market’s performance by stating that the prolonged mixed investor sentiments reached their lowest level as a result of sell-offs and profit-taking that led to low liquidity and confidence prior to the 2023 general election as well as other factors that provided enormous rally opportunities for astute traders and investors.
“We expect mixed sentiments to continue on reactions to corporate earnings and bargain hunting in the midst of expected macroeconomic data and election uncertainty, as investors are taking advantage of the low prices to reposition ahead of the Q3 GDP report.”
Capital Cordros stated: “Looking ahead, we expect investors to rebalance their portfolios based on an assessment of corporate earnings released for Q3-22. However, the increased FI yields may continue to constrain buying activities.”
“Consequently, we expect market performance to remain mixed in the week ahead as investors rotate their portfolios towards stocks with attractive dividend yields amid intermittent profit-taking activities.”
“Overall, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Aside from the deals in Accesscorp, Seplat, and GEREGU, market activity this week was quite subdued, according to Vetiva Dealing and Brokerage. Additionally, given the market’s present mood, we anticipate neutral to negative sessions with isolated pockets of bullish closure across sectors next week.
Further examination of last week’s trading revealed that, as opposed to the 6,744 units valued at N1.725 million transacted last week in 26 deals, 4,577 units of exchange-traded products worth N531,565.05 were traded in 28 deals last week.
Additionally, 121,712 units of bonds for N119.220 million in total were traded this week in 16 trades.
During the week, 20 stocks had their prices rise, which is fewer than the 29 stocks that did so the week before.
