Last week, the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) had a turnover of 921.8 million shares worth N27.2 billion in 15,601 transactions.
However, the number of shares moved was larger than the 1.8 billion units worth N18.9 billion that were exchanged in 12,036 transactions on December 30, 2022.
The Federal Government proclaimed Monday, January 2, 2023, a national holiday to honor the New Year’s celebration, therefore the market was open for four trading days last week.
The financial services sector led the activity chart at the end of last week’s trading, accounting for 616.5 million shares worth N6.5 billion in 7,208 trades, or 66.8% of the total volume of stock change.
The next largest sector was industrial goods, with 138.3 million units sold for N13.4 billion in 1,063 transactions. With a turnover of 55.9 million shares worth N92.8 million in 502 deals, the conglomerate industry came in third.
The top three stocks, FBN Holdings Plc, BUA Cement Plc, and Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, had 450.3 million shares worth N17.2 billion change hands in 1,862 deals, accounting for 48.9% of the total equities turnover.
The benchmark index and market capitalization both declined by 0.6% to end the first trading week of 2023 at 51,222.34 and N27.899 trillion, respectively, according to the price movement chart.
Except for the NGX Main Board, NGX Industrial Goods, and NGX Sovereign Bond indices, which declined by 0.54 percent, 0.58 percent, and 0.09 percent, respectively, while the NGX ASeM index closed flat, all other indices ended the day up.
The loss for the week was specifically caused by sell-offs in the shares of Buacement (-1.8%) and Airtel Africa (-5.2%) amid bargain hunting in Buafoods (+14.6%) and NB (+14.6%).
Analysts at Cordros responded to the market’s performance last week by saying: “In the interim, we believe positioning for 2022 full-year earnings releases and accompanying dividends declarations will continue to support buying activities on the local bourse even as institutional investors continue to search for hints on the direction of yields in the FI market.
“However, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Vetiva Dealings and Brokerage said: “AIRTELAFRI’s net loss of 5.20.per cent eroded the positive performance seen all through the week, as all sectoral indices except the industrials closed the week in the green.
“Also, for the first time this week, the NGXCNSMRGDS index closed in the red, as investors took profit in PZ, Nestle and Flourmills while BUAfoods and NB halted their bullish run. We expect another mixed trading session next week, as investors take profit on recent gainers.”
In comparison to the 1.308 million units for N6.536 million that were traded last week in 31 deals, 2,172 units of exchange-traded products worth N1.5 million were traded last week in 43 deals.
Additionally, a total of 6,695 units worth N6.4 million were traded this week in 15 deals as opposed to 69,961 units worth N66.888 million that were traded in 18 deals previous week.
38 stocks saw gains over the week, which was fewer than the 44 stocks that saw gains the week before. 17 stocks declined more than 16 did the week before, while 102 stocks remained steady.
