Nigeria’s stock market closed the week ended Friday September 24 in green (+0.05percent) as investors routed for last minute bargain in favour of value counters that are trading at new lows.
Despite three consecutive days of negative closes (Monday to Wednesday) as against two days of positive closes (Thursday and Friday), the equities market of Africa’s largest economy still gained N9billion in the review trading week as investors moved in to buy banking, insurance, and oil & gas stocks.
Activity level spiked as volume and value traded increased on the back of significant cross trades in FBN Holdings (473million units at N7.50) accounting for 74.66percent of total volume traded. This helped reduce the record negative return seen at the equities market this year to -3.25percent.
Market watchers observed that with the banking index contributing the most to the positive close (+0.23percent) on Friday, the stock market’s week-to-date (WtD) return was able to recover for the losses posted earlier in the week.
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The market is expected to open a new week in green as investors continue their hunt for bargains following re-entry opportunities created by previous bearish run that made prices of many value stocks to reach record lows.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalisation appreciated from week-open lows of 38,943.87 points and N20.290 trillion respectively to 38,962.28 points and N20.299trillion.
Though, the NGX 30 index which tracks the top 30 companies in terms of market capitalisation and liquidity decreased by 0.04percent in week ended Friday September 24.
Performance of other key sectoral indices in the review week shows: NGX Banking (-0.43percent), NGX Consumer Goods (-0.04percent), NGX Industrial (+0.23percent), NGX Insurance (+1.75percent), NGX Oil & Gas (+1.38percent), and NGX Pension (-0.05percent).
“We anticipate a moderate start to begin the new trading week barring any significant cross trades as investors continue to bargain hunt across sectors”, said Lagos-based Vetiva research analysts in their September 24 note to investors.
