Stock market pendulum swings back to green zone, gains N292.4bn

After weeks of residing in the red, and falling below the N20 trillion sacred line, the stock market last week saw the pendulum swung back to the red zone, adding N292.4 billion to investors’ wealth.

Performance of the Nigerian equities market was mixed last week as the All Share Index (ASI) closed in the green on three of five trading sessions. Consequently, the benchmark index advanced 1.5 per cent week-on-week (w/w) to settle at 38,212.01 points while Year-to-Date (YTD) loss moderated to -5.1 per cent.

Market capitalisation increased by N292.4 billion in value to close at N19.9 trillion. Activity level improved as average volume and value rose 0.2 per cent and 36.8 per cent respectively to 209.2 million units and N2.0 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were GTCO (73.9 million), FBNH (43.6 million), and MBENEFIT (42.4 million) while MTNN (N3.4 billion), ZENITH (N972.9 million) and NESTLE (N931.7 million) were the top traded stocks by value.

In terms of sector performance, four of six indices under our coverage advanced. Leading gainer last week was the Consumer Goods index, up 5.1 per cent w/w on the back of buying interest in VITAFOAM (+12.3 per cent), NESTLE (+10.0 per cent) and NASCON (+9.8 per cent).

In the same vein, the Industrial Goods and Insurance indices rose 2.1 per cent and 2.0 per cent w/w respectively as CUTIX (+8.3 per cent), DANGCEM (+4.0 per cent), LINKASSURE (+30.8 per cent) and NEM (+4.2 per cent) closed in the green. Price appreciation in WEMABANK (+23.3 per cent), UBN (+4.7 per cent) and FCMB (+3.3 per cent) drove the Banking index higher by 1.3 per cent w/w.