Equity transactions on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) grew by 8.2 per cent week-on-week (w-o-w) at the close of business last week. The bullish momentum in October, lost steam as investors took a breather to digest corporate earnings released thus far. Analysis of the market’s performance showed that a total turnover of 2.067 billion shares worth N22.636 billion in 25,187 deals were traded on Friday by investors, in contrast to a total of 1.909 billion shares valued at N23.61 billion that exchanged hands in 23,578 deals in the previous week.
Supported by gains on the second (+0.8 per cent) and last trading (+0.9 per cent) days, the All-Share Index crawled above the 31,000 points psychological mark, closing at 31,016.17 points as Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar and GT Bank drove the benchmark index 1.56 per cent higher, its seventh-consecutive weekly gain.
Similarly, market capitalisation which opened trading at N15.957 trillion, rose by N7 billion to close the week at N16.027 trillion. The Month-to-Date (MtD) return stood at 1.6 per cent while the Year-to-Date (YtD) return for index grew to 15.6 per cent.
Commenting on the performance of the market, market analysts say they expect investors to shift their attention to yet- to- be published results from the big banks in the week while adding that this would dictate sentiments on the domestic bourse.
Cordros Capital said: “As the Q3 earnings season winds down, we expect investors to shift their attention to yet- to-be published results from the big banks in the week ahead. In the short term, we still see scope for expansion in valuation multiples as hunt for alpha-yielding opportunities in the face of increasingly negative real returns in the fixed income market remain positive for stocks.
However, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings”. On the other hand, Afrinvest said: “We expect the trend in corporate earnings releases to direct market performance this week. Trading in the top three equities namely Access Bank Plc, FBN Holding Plc and Zenith Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 686.338 million shares worth N7.599 billion in 4,557 deals, contributing 33.21 and 33.57 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.