At the end of trading last week, equity investors traded 938.020 million shares worth N16.701 billion in 15,700 deals, despite the overwhelming unfavorable emotions that dominated the Nigerian stock market.
According to Daily Sun investigations, profit-taking operations throughout the trading week caused local stocks to experience their biggest loss of the year.
The All-Share Index (ASI), as a result, dropped 6.67% week over week (w/w), closing at 44,396.73 points, its lowest level since January 18, 2022. (44,655.89 points). Sell-offs in companies like Airtel Africa, MTNN, and Wapco in particular supported the market’s performance.
Furthermore, from an opening value of N25.910 trillion, market capitalization fell by a staggering N1.73 trillion w/w to close at N24.182 trillion.
As a result, the Year-to-Date (YTD) return dramatically decreased to +3.9% while the Month-to-Date (MTD) loss surged to -9.4%.
The Industrial Goods (+3.2%) and Banking (+1.2%) indices performed better than the Insurance (-3.7%), Oil and Gas (-1.5%), and Consumer Goods (-0.9%) indexes, which had mixed sectoral performance.
However, activity levels were upbeat as trading volume and value jumped by 90.7% week over week and 40.1% week over week, respectively, compared to the previous trading week, when 14,350 trades involved a total of 491.815 million shares valued at N11.922 billion.
Trading in the top three stocks, namely CWG Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc. (based on volume) represented 490.324million shares at volume.
2,860 transactions of N2.905 billion contributed 52.27 percent and 17.39 percent, respectively, to the total volume and value of equities turnover.
With 501.278 million shares worth N5.080 billion moved in 8,279 deals, the Financial Services Industry (as measured by volume) dominated the activity chart and contributed 53.44 percent and 30.42 percent, respectively, to the overall stock turnover volume and value.
The Oil and Gas Industry saw a turnover of 28.244 million shares worth N983.561 million in 846 trades, while the ICT Industry came in second with 316.347 million shares worth N8.729 billion in 1,249 deals.
Analysts at Cordros Research commented on the market’s performance and predicted that smart investors would take advantage of this week’s notable pullback in bellwether stock prices to re-enter the market and purchase shares in companies with strong fundamentals and alluring dividend yields.
“However, we do not rule out the possibility of continued profit-taking activities. As a result, we envisage a choppy trading pattern. Nonetheless, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”, they said.
