Profit booking dips local stock market by 0.13%

At the end of trading activities last week, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) sustained bearish momentum as investors continued to take their profits off their stocks.

Despite recording bearish trade in the earlier days of the week, a bit of positive momentum was observed towards the end of the week as few companies released their audited financial report for the year ended 2021.

Therefore, by the end of trading sessions on Friday investors had lost N29.46 billion through the week as the market capitalisation settled at N25.41 trillion.

Hence, the All-Share Index (ASI) fell marginally Week-on-Week (WoW) by 0.13 per cent to close at 47,140.48 basis points. Thus, the Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) return settled at +1.1 per cent and +10.4 per cent, respectively.

Notably, profit-taking in Seplat, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Access Bank, Airtel Africa and Dangote Cement drove the weekly loss as their share prices closed lower by 5.9 per cent, 1.5 per cent, 1.4 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.

However, all other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Premium, NGX Banking, NGX AFR Bank value, NGX Oil & Gas and NGX Industrial Goods which depreciated by 0.29 per cent, 0.74 per cent, 0.86 per cent, 3.45 per cent, and 0.32 per cent respectively while the NGX Main Board, NGX Asem, NGX Growth and NGX Sovereign Bond Indices closed flat.

However, activity levels were stronger last week, than in the prior week, as trading volumes and value rose by 28.7 per cent WoW and 35.5 per cent WoW respectively.

A total turnover of 1.713 billion shares worth N30.764 billion in 24,767 deals was traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.331 billion shares valued at N22.700 billion that exchanged hands in 27,822 deals in the preceding week.

The Financial Services Industry, measured by volume, led the activity chart with 1.064 billion shares valued at N12.201 billion traded in 11,708 deals; thus contributing 62.14 per cent and 39.66 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 156.077 million shares worth N5.004 billion in 4,877 deals. The third place was The Conglomerates Industry, with a turnover of 113.554 million shares worth N309.833 million in 1,062 deals.

Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc were the top three equities traded during the week under review. They accounted for 500.778 million shares worth N7.455 billion in 3,603 deals, contributing 29.23 per cent and 24.23 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

In the coming weeks, analysts expect the NGX floor to be flooded with corporate earnings as more companies publish their audited 2021 Full Year results, accompanied by dividend declarations.

Therefore, analysts at Cordros believed this would provide a catalyst for buying activities even as risk-averse investors were likely to remain cautious due to medium-term expectations of an uptick in Fixed Income yields.

Cowry Assets also expect the equities market to be bullish as corporates that opted for the 60-days filing option have started releasing their audited FY 2021 results with stimulating dividend payouts.

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