The Nigerian equities market ended the month of August on the first trading day of this week with gains. In August, the benchmark All-Share index (NSE ASI) advanced by 2.57%, adding N331.216 billion to the market capitalization. The rest of the trading sessions in the week continued the same trend, gaining on each of those sessions.
The first week of September which started on the last day of August, ended with the NSE ASI advancing by 1.17% to settle at 25,605.64, having started the week at 25,309.37. The YTD performance of the index moderated to minus 4.61% and N154.433 billion was added to Investors’ wealth.
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The activity level improved significantly as both the volume and value of stocks traded increased by 106% and 48% respectively.
A total turnover of 2.209 billion shares worth N10.957 billion in 18,013 deals were traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.072 billion shares valued at N7.384 billion that exchanged hands last week in 16,684 deals.
The Construction/Real Estate industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 954.529 million shares valued at N681.392 million traded in 218 deals; thus contributing 43.21% and 6.22% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Financial Services industry followed with 889.888 million shares worth N6.538 billion in 10,107 deals. The third place was the Conglomerates industry, with a turnover of 209.437 million shares worth N579.990 million in 677 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely UACN- Property Development Company Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and LASACO Assurance Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 1.229 billion shares worth N3.243 billion in 2,148 deals, contributing 55.61% and 29.60% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The improved activity level, which was sustained for all trading sessions, after a spike on the first day of September. The activity chart shows the NSE ASI continuing its upward trajectory, with the volume and value of traded stocks now showing signs of an uptick.
More deals were also done, indicating that the high volumes were not as a result of few market participants reshuffling their portfolios.
At the end of trading on Friday, 4th September, the YTD performances of the 5 indices under our watch is as below;
- NSE Insurance Index: +7.30%
- NSE Oil and Gas Index: -26.03%
- NSE Banking Index: -15.34%
- NSE Consumer Goods Index: -26.90%
- NSE Industrial Goods Index: +4.52%
All the five indices under our watch advanced in the week in review; Insurance index gained 1.96%, Oil & Gas index gained 3.65%, Banking index gained 2.76%, Consumer goods index gained 1.49% and the Industrial goods index gained 0.44%.
Forty-one (41) equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than twenty-nine (29) equities in the previous week.
Nineteen (19) equities depreciated in price, lower than thirty-six (36) equities in the previous week, while one hundred and three (103) equities remained unchanged, higher than ninety-eight (98) equities recorded in the previous week.
See top gainers and losers in the table below:
Source: Nigerian Stock Exchange Weekly Market Report
The week ahead
We expect profit taking and bargain hunting to drive the market performance in the coming week, with a mixed activity level.
We are reviewing our stock pick in the light of the half year results from the tier 1 banks, and a stock pick focused only on banking stocks will be published next week.
Written by;
Nnamdi M.
