Equities Trading Sell-off fails to dampen market rally, posts best in 6 years as investors gain N2.1trn

By Charles Abuede

• Expect more profit taking this week in fundamentally strong counters

Despite the sell-off witnessed at the close of last week, the local equities market gained N2.1 trillion from last week’s trading, stoked by the risk-on posture of investors bolstered by record-low yields. The local bourse wrapped up another week of gains, as stocks powered to a new high, leading to broad-based advances in the market.

Thanks to the risk-on mood as the index notched its best gain since 2014 when it recorded 13.60 per cent. Against this backdrop, the All-Share-Index advanced by 13.0 per cent week on week to 35,037.46 points. The market capitalization, which hit an all-time high on the historic Thursday, also moderated to N18.3 trillion at the end of the week, with the year to date return piling a record-setting pace of +30.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, a total turnover of 4.51 billion shares worth N58.73 billion in 47,140 deals were traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange last week, in contrast to a total of 2.1 billion shares valued at N22.636 billion that exchanged hands last week in 25,187 deals as the volume and value of trades advanced by 117.7 per cent and 158.6 per cent respectively on a weekly comparison.

Similarly, on the sectoral front, the financial services index (measured by volume) led the bullish chart with 3.073 billion shares valued at N35.41 billion traded in 25,894 deals; thus contributing 68.15 per cent and 60.29 per cent to the total equity turnover, volume and value respectively. Also, the conglomerates index followed with 437.822 million shares worth N771.280 million in 1,864 deals. The third place was the consumer goods index, with a turnover of 373.613 million shares worth N7.82 billion in 7,471 deals. Accordingly, the banking, consumer goods, insurance and oil & gas sectors surged 14.4 per cent, 11.4 per cent, 7.7 per cent, and 5.3 per cent, week on week, respectively.

On the weekly gainers’ chart were OANDO Plc (48.2%), Japaul Oil Plc (43.5%), Northern Nigerian Flour Mills (40%), Livestock Feeds (36.8%) and Fidson Healthcare (36.5%). On the flip side, Ikeja Hotel (-9.9%), Global Spectrum Energy (-9.9), Morison Industries (-9.3%) and Hallmark Insurance (-8.1%) closed as the top weekly losers.

Meanwhile, the investor sentiments strengthened across the market from the previous week’s as 69 equities advanced in price during the week, higher than the 40 equities in the previous week. However, 12 equities declined in price, lower than 24 equities in the previous week, while 80 equities remained traded flat lower than the 97 recorded in the previous week.

The NSE 30

The NSE 30 Index decreased by 1.76 per cent to close at 1,509.40 points as against 1,536.47 points as on the previous day. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 748.21 million units. Custodian and Dangote Sugar were the key gainers, while FCMB and Sterling were the key losers.