Transactions in the shares of First City Monument Bank (FCMB), TransNational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) and Zenith Bank, last week, lifted the volume of shares traded as a total of 1.374 billion shares worth N23.8 billion were traded in 28,809 deals.
A breakdown of activities on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) indicated that the volume of shares traded was however higher than a total of 1.668 billion units valued at N19.5 billion was exchanged in 25,979 deals during the week ended February 25, 2022.
Trading in the top three equities namely FCMB Group, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria and Zenith Bank (measured by volume) accounted for 416.676 million shares worth N2.9 billion in 3,321 deals, contributing 30.32 per cent to the total equities turnover volume.
On the sectoral performance, the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 889.542 million shares valued at N8 billion traded in 14,034 deals, thus contributing 64.74 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The conglomerate industry followed with 131.154 million shares worth N199.3 million in 1,259 deals. In the third place was the ICT industry, with a turnover of 89.777 million shares worth N10.6 billion in 2,119 deals.
Also, a total of 1.586 million units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N24.867 million were traded in 22 deals compared with a total of 1,622 units valued at N775,980.88 transacted last week in 27 deals.
Similarly, 800 units of bonds, valued at N149.010 million were traded last week in 23 deals compared to 67,646 units valued at N76.3 million transacted last week in 11 deals.
On the activity chart, though the NGX opened the week on a strong note, the bullish momentum lost vigour as investors paused later in the week to digest corporate earnings released thus far.
With midweek sell-off undermining the market performance, the NGX all-share index and market capitalisation depreciated by 0.13 per cent to close the week at 47,268.61 and N25,475 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished lower except NGX Premium, NGX AseM, NGX Meri Growth, NGX Oil/Gas and NGX Sovereign bond indices.
Particularly, intense profit-taking activities witnessed in International Breweries (-9.1 per cent), Lafarge WAPCO (-8.8 per cent), National Salt Company of Nigeria (-8.3 per cent), DANGSUGAR (-7.7 per cent), United Bank for Africa (-5.2 per cent), and GUINNESS (-4.4 per cent) drove the weekly loss.
Reacting on market performance and predicting activities for the week, analysts at Cordros Capital said: “We expect investors to take advantage of the significant moderation in the share prices to make a re-entry in dividend-paying stocks in the week ahead.
However, we envisage a zig-zag pattern as intermittent profit-taking activities will likely persist due to medium-term expectations on the direction of yields in the fixed income market.
“Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Vetiva Dealing and Brokerage said: “The week traded largely bearish, as seen in the negative WTD return across the sectors except for the impressive return posted in oil and gas sector, courtesy of the bullish sentiments in SEPLAT.
“We expect to see investors take advantage of the price declines in some of these counters thereby improving the market performance.”
Source: guardian