In the trading week ended Friday August 27, investors in Nigeria’s stock market booked gain of just N1billion, while the market’s benchmark performance indicator also printed slightly high by 0.01percent when compared to the preceding trading week.
In the review week, the stock market of Africa’s largest economy saw mixed trading sessions as investors continued to favour small-to-mid cap names amid persistent lukewarm activity levels.
Banking, insurance, oil/gas sector stocks helped push the market to record positive close while consumer goods and industrial stocks were major laggards.
The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) All-Share Index (ASI) and its Market Capitalisation which had opened the review week at 39,483.08 points and N20.571trillion respectively increased to 39,485.65 points and N20.572trillion at the close of the week’s trading.
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The market’s negative return year-to-date (YtD) stood at -1.95percent at close of the week’s trading session. In this month of August alone, Nigeria’s equities market has risen by 2.43 percent.
Many analysts had expected improved buy activity in the banking counters as investors await their audited half-year (H1) results. The earliest bird – Zenith Bank Plc berthed the market with its audited financial statement, proposing to pay investors 30kobo dividend.
Despite the bank’s flattened gross earnings by 0.15percent year-on-year (yoy), profit before tax (PBT) grew by 2.6percent year-on-year while profit after tax (PAT) increase by 2.21percent.
