The number of shares traded last week was increased by active trading in the shares of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), and Access Holdings Plc, which had a combined turnover of 917.2 million shares worth N14.8 billion in 19, 513 transactions.
However, the number of shares traded above the 504 million units worth N7.5 billion that were transacted in 12, 393 deals.
The top three stocks represented 365.6 million shares worth N4.1 billion in 562 transactions, representing 38.8% of the total volume of equity.
The financial services sector, as indicated by volume, topped the sectoral activity chart with 648.2 million shares worth N6.3 billion exchanged in 9293 deals.
70% of the total equity turnover volume and value were supplied by the sector. Conglomerate companies came in second with 253.4 million shares worth N280.8 million traded in 1,126 transactions. The consumer goods sector came in second with 102.6 million shares valued at N3.2 billion traded in 3,016 transactions. With a turnover of 36.2 million shares worth N193.4 million in 562 deals, the conglomerates industry came in third.
The market capitalization of listed stocks and the performance of quoted firms are both tracked by the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) all-share index, which decreased by 0.5% to end the week at 51,979.92 and N28.031 trillion, respectively.
Aside from the NGX Insurance, NGX MERI Growth, NGX Oil/Gas, NGX Growth, and NGX Sovereign Bond Indices, which rose by 1.81 percent, 1.01 percent, 3.80 percent, 0.41 percent, and 0.15 percent, respectively, and the NGX ASeM index, which closed flat, all other indices also ended lower.
Notably, profit-taking activity seen in the equities of Zenith Bank (-6.5%), International Breweries (-6.7%), Lafarge WAPCO (-6.7%), and Nigerian Breweries (-10.9%) contributed to the weekly loss.
Codros Capital analysts responded to the market’s performance last week by saying: “In the interim, we believe the full swing of the H1 ’22 earnings season will dictate market sentiments and possibly drive positive performance as investors hunt for bargains in fundamentally sound stocks with a consistent history of interim dividend payments.
Despite this, we expect strong selling pressure on the stocks of businesses that perform terribly in the first half of the year (H1) 22. Overall, we stress the need of investing primarily in fundamentally strong stocks because the challenging macroeconomic environment continues to be a major drag on corporate profitability.
According to analysts from Vetiva Dealings & Brokerage, “Market sentiment has been pessimistic throughout the week, following Tuesday’s MPR boost with four straight negative closes.
“While this might result in appealing entry opportunities for some counters, investors are likely to continue trading cautiously next week, so expect sluggish trading sessions.
However, better-than-expected Q2 earnings might provide the market with the much-needed boost the following week. Additionally, a total of 79,914 bonds worth N83 million were traded last week in 31 deals as opposed to 747,022 bonds worth N775 million that were traded in 23 deals the previous week.
