Equities Market Up By N3.25trn In Two Months

Motolani Oseni

At the close of trading activities for the first two months in 2022, the equities market of the Nigeria Exchange Limited (NGX) recorded a total of N3.246 trillion capital appreciations on investors’ investments.

Considering the trading figures for both January and February, it showed that the NGX market capitalisation increased by N3.25trillion to end February at N25.543trillion, as against N22.297trillion that it stood at the beginning of the year.

Also, the NGX All-Share Index gained (ASI) 10.95 per cent to close on February 28, 2022 at 47,394.53 basis points, from 42,716.44 points at which it opened for the year.

Specifically, bulls maintain a grip on the last trading of February as the Nigerian Equities Market extends the previous week’s outing to close the month of February on a positive note.

The NGXASI inched up by 0.14 per cent to peg the ASI at 47,2394.53bps. ”This outing brought both the month-to-date and year-to-date performance of the All-Share Index to stand at 1.65 per cent and 10.95 per cent respectively.

“Investors earned N36bn in the session as the Market Capitalization followed suit the direction of the ASI to stand at N25.543tn, a 0.14% increase from the N25.507tn it stood at the end of the previous trading session.

“Bulls’ camp maintained grip to close the market breadth with 23 counters in the gainers’ chart pitted against 15 counters in the losers’ chart”, APT Securities noted in its daily market report.

Analysis of the market performance for the just concluded month, showed that performance across sectors was bullish as at February 25, 2022. In fact, the NGX’s Oil & Gas index recorded the highest gain during the month, with a gain of 23.26 per cent.

The Banking index up by 11.07 per cent, while NSE Industrial Goods appreciated by 6.12 per cent. Others are NGX Pension, NGX Premium, NGX 30 and NGX Lotus II indices recorded a year-to-date gain as at February 25, 2022 of 6.02 per cent, 5.89 per cent, 5.51 per cent and 1.12 per cent.

On the other side, NGX Insurance declined by 4.51 per cent, while NGX Consumer Goods down by 0.51 per cent in the first two months of the year, 2022.

Meanwhile, trading at the NASD OTC Share Index waned by 0.09 per cent in the session to stand at 729.93ps.

According to APT Securities, “This outing pegged the market capitalization at N618.09bn as investors lost N570mn in the session.

“Market activity as measured by volume gained weight in the session as 117,850 shares were traded in 7 deals as against a volume of 47,627 units traded in 9 deals in the previous session; representing a 147.44per cent spike in volume of trades as executed deals dipped by 22.22 per cent.

The value of those traded shares, however stood at N1.944mn representing a 34.51 per cent decrease from a value of N2.968mn recorded in the previous session.