Nigerian Exchange equities investors earn over $1bln in 5 days

PHOTO

Equities trading at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) closed in the green territory, last week, despite profit-taking activities in heavyweights in the telecommunications and consumer goods sectors, as the All-Share Index advanced by 2.1 per cent w/w to close at 54,085.30 basis points.

Equities investors, therefore, gained N596 billion as the market capitalization, having crossed N29 trillion market, ended the week at N29.16 trillion as against an opening of N28.562 trillion to N29.158 trillion

Notably, the positive performance last week was buoyed by foreign investors’ renewed interest in Airtel Africa, spiking a whopping 20.2 per cent weekly growth. Appreciation in Airtel Africa’s stocks proved sufficient in offsetting losses in Guinness Nigeria, Nigeria Breweries and MTN Nigeria having recorded 11.2 per cent, 10.0 per cent, and 4.8 per cent respective decline in share values.

Consequently, the Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date returns for the index increased to 9.0 per cent and 26.6 per cent, respectively.

However, activity levels were weaker than in the prior week, as trading volume and value declined by 39.4 per cent and 14.5 per cent, respectively.

Performance across sectors in our coverage was broadly negative, following 6.3 per cent, 3.9 per cent, 0.9 per cent, 0.8 per cent and 0.7 per cent losses in the Insurance, Consumer Goods, Oil and Gas, Banking, and Industrial Goods indices.

Last week, measured by volume, the Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 1.286 billion shares valued at N10.745 billion traded in 12,379 deals; thus contributing 69.90 per cent and 39.37 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with 251.105 million shares worth 1.659 billion in 1,371 deals. The third place was The Consumer Goods Industry, with a turnover of 105.601 million shares worth N2.522 billion in 4,263 deals.

Despite the bullish sentiments at the local bourse, with the recent decision of the MPC to hike the MPR by 150 basis points, analysts expect negative sentiments to dominate market performance in the short term.

“Nonetheless, we think a short-term market correction will present opportunities for investors to make re-entry in stocks with sound fundamentals and attractive dividend yields. Overall, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the fragility of the macroeconomic environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings,” Cordros analysts said in a report.