By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Nigerian bourse on Friday ended the week on a bullish note as all-share index and market capitalisation climbed up by 6.52 percent to close on Friday at 29,383.93 and N 9.804 trillion.
Market Breadth boosted by the performance of lenders, Access Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc saw all the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) indices appreciating during the week with exception of the NSE Insurance Index that declined by 0.58 percent, while NSE ASeM Index closed flat.
The NSE’s weekly market report say volume increase of Access, UBA and GTBank (measured by volume) accounted for 749.043 million shares worth N6.637 billion in 4,558 deals, contributing 35.96 percent and 29.54 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Cordros say the equities market recorded multiple gains in trading sessions this week, thus surpassing investor expectations. It added that though uncertainties remain evident in the market, bargain hunting and speculative trading pushed the market to record its current gain.
Current year-to-Date (Y-t-D) returns at the Nigerian equities market stands at a negative 15.22 percent compared to 20.14 percent recorded last week.
“The CBN’s decision to close the auction windows and restrict foreign exchange transactions to interbank markets may have renewed uncertainties as share dumping was prevalent in Thursday and Friday sessions were gains came in much lower than in the first three sessions,” the Cordros sreport added.
At the end of the week’s transaction, the NSE reported a turnover of 2.083 billion shares worth N22.467 billion in 20,805 deals traded by investors on the floor of its bourse compared to a total of 1.950 billion shares valued at N27.836 billion that exchanged hands last week in 19,337 deals.
The NSE report say the Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.645 billion shares valued at N10.726 billion traded in 12,348 deals; thus contributing 78.98 percent and 47.74 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
“The ICT Industry followed with a turnover of 148.155 million shares worth N609.070 million in 66 deals. The third place was occupied by the Conglomerates Industry with 122.735 million shares worth N1.013 billion in 1,305 deals,” the NSE said.
“Massive gains recorded in the market resulted mainly from the leap in the Banking index gaining 11.33 percent w/w against its 8.94 percent plunge last week. The Oil/Gas index followed suit with a 7.17 percent gain w/w amidst renewed optimism on rising global oil prices. The Industrial and Consumer Goods also reckoned bullish momentum with gains of 6.53 percent and 4.21 percent w/w against 9.86 percent and eight (8) percent losses evident last week,” Cordros affirmed.
In terms of price changes at the Nigerian equities market, the review period shows that 40 equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 11 of the past week.
26 equities declined in price, lower than 53 of the previous week, while 130 equities remained unchanged lower than 132 recorded in the preceding week.
