By Chukuwma Umeorah
Investors’ interest in highly capitalised stocks helped push the Nigerian market’s index up 0.73 per cent week-on-week (w/w) despite gains recorded in three out of five trading sessions last week.
Bargain hunting in the shares of Guinness, Stanbic, AccessCorp, WAPCO, BUA Foods among others drove the All Share Index (ASI) above the 50,000 mark to close at 50, 045.83 points.
Based on the preceding, the Month-to-Date (MTD) return printed +0.4 per cent, the Year-to-Date (YTD) return increased to +17.2 per cent while market capitalization gained N114 billion to close at N26.994 trillion from the month’s opening figure of N26.880 trillion.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX- Growth Index which depreciated by 0.51 per cent while, the NGX ASeM and NGX Sovereign Bond indices closed flat.
Meanwhile, a total turnover of 1.195 billion shares worth N12.924 billion in 19,305 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 914.443 million shares valued at N15.263 billion that exchanged hands last week in 18,021 deals.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.017 billion shares valued at N5.685 billion traded in 10,107 deals; thus contributing 85.09 and 43.99 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The ICT Industry followed with 37.063 million shares worth N4.575 billion in 1,996 deals while the Consumer Goods Industry recorded a turnover of 35.184 million shares worth N1.209 billion in 2,471 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Sterling Bank Plc., Fidelity Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 540.056 million shares worth N1.499 billion in 2,179 deals, contributing 45.18 and 11.60 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Reacting to the performance of the market, market analysts said they expect alpha-seeking investors to continue to seek trading opportunities in stocks of companies that delivered impressive earnings during the Q2 2022 earnings season amid the yield uptick in the FI market.