BY CHARLES ABUEDE
Investors returned to the Nigerian equities market last week after a two-day Ramadan holiday and hit the bullseye right away as the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), for the first time in 14 years, saw its all-share index hit the 50,000 psychological points, riding to a high of 51,000 with total market cap of N27.46 trillion from listed equities.
The positive rally could be traced to the positive first quarter earnings churned out by some of the mid-cap and large cap companies, coupled with gains recorded in the mid cap companies within the consumer goods sectors such as Cadbury Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries, who have had an impressive outings in April and into the start of May 2022.
At the equities market the bulls have continued to rule amid strong Q1 financial performances and positive investor sentiment. And analysts have expressed high expectations this week from some profit-taking on last week’s strong performers.
The outcome of trading activities last week saw the NGX All-Share Index and market capitalization appreciate by 2.61 percent, the market’s year to date return at 19.24 percent, with all indices closing in the positive region save the insurance index.
After the short trading days the previous week, resulting from the public holidays declared by the federal government, the market, in the first trading week in May, recorded a total turnover of 1.6 billion shares worth N19.6 billion in 21,494 deals transacted by investors on the floor of the NGX.
This was in contrast to a total of 8.2 billion shares valued at N49.2 billion that exchanged hands in 28,622 deals in the previous week. This bullishness was buoyed by impressive gains in Champion Breweries, International Breweries, Cadbury Nigeria, and Nigerian Breweries, among others.
Across the sectorial front, the banking sector led activities by volume with 1.06 billion shares valued at N7.73 billion traded in 8,670 deals; thus accounting for 66.15 percent and 39.42 percent of the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively. The industrial goods sector followed with 148.17 million shares worth N250.6 million done in 852 deals, as well as the Consumer Goods Industry, with a turnover of 145.471 million shares worth N5.23 billion done in 4,557 deals.
Trading as the top three equities for the week were Union Bank of Nigeria, FCMB Group and Transnational Corporation, which led the chart as measured by volume, and accounted for 547.6 million shares worth N2.3 billion in 957 deals, contributing 34.26 percent and 11.89 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Insurance, which closed negative, shedding 1.98 percent week on week; while the Oil and Gas sector also closed 1.1 percent week on week in ease following pressured strong gains witnessed in Oando Plc.
Meanwhile, the market breadth, which is the measure of investor sentiments, waned during the week as forty-nine (49) equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than fifty-six (56) equities in the previous week. Thirty-two (32) equities depreciated in price, higher than twenty-six (26) equities in the previous week, while seventy-five (75) equities remained unchanged, higher than seventy-four (74) equities recorded in the previous week.
Also, the NGX 30 Index closed the week up by 3.34 percent week on week to close at 1,949.17 points, as against 1,886.26 points in the previous week’s close. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 184.56 million units. International Breweries and Flour Mills were the key gainers, while Stanbic IBTC and Sterling were the key losers.
