Negative sentiments persist at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) as the All-Share Index recorded a 0.2 per cent decline at the end of the week, owing to profit-taking of some banking stocks.
The bears managed to come out top after defeating the bulls in three of the week’s five trading session, as a result, the Year-to-Date(YtD) loss rose to -4.2 per cent.
Specifically, the NGX All-Share Index and Market Capitalisation depreciated by 0.15 per cent and 0.12 per cent to close the week at 38,808.01 and N20.310 trillion respectively.
Notably, profit-taking in large-cap stocks such as Stanbic IBTC Holdings, MTN Nigeria and Zenith Bank; drove the weekly loss as they lost 2.3 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.
However, activity levels were stronger than the prior week, as trading volumes and value rose significantly by 42.4 per cent w/w and 17.0 per cent week on week, respectively.
A total turnover of 1.263 billion shares worth N10.759 billion in 19,975 deals were traded during the week under preview, in contrast to a total of 887.037 million shares valued at N9.193 billion that exchanged hands last week in 17,837 deals.
The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 853.125 million shares valued at N6.754 billion traded in 11,127 deals; thus contributing 67.56 per cent and 62.78 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry followed with 103.226 million shares worth N704.563 million in 954 deals. The third-place was Oil and Gas Industry, with a turnover of 89.472 million shares worth N353.533 million in 1,479 deals.
Fidelity Bank Plc, FBN Holdings Plc and Access Bank Plc stocks took the top three equities traded. They accounted for 390.775 million shares worth N2.021 billion in 3,241deals, contributing 30.94 per cent and 18.78 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Sectoral performance was however negative, as the Industrial Goods index emerged as the week’s sole gainer with 0.9 per cent appreciation in its value. The Insurance index led the losers’ chart, followed by Banking, Consumer Goods and Oil and Gas indices.
Analysts believed the local equities market is not out of the woods yet as they expect the lull in the market to persist as investors remain perturbed by the rising yields in the FI market.
Analysts at Cordros however advised investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.
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