Dangote Cement, others lift equities market by N245bn

By Yesirat Kazeem

The Nigerian Exchange Limited gained last week as the bulls dominated in four of the five trading days supported by bargain hunting in large-cap stocks.

As a result, the changes in market metrics amounted to N245 billion profits for equities investors in the country. This drove market CAP higher to surpass N20 trillion marks at N20.185 trillion from N19.940 trillion it closed last week.

The All-Share Index that tracks share price movements in the market edged up by 1.23 per cent as it gained 469.15 basis points to close the week at 38,726.10 basis points.

Notably, bargain hunting in large-cap stocks such as Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, MTN Nigeria and Guaranty Trust Bank plc (GTBank) that advanced by 3.5 per cent, 2.8 per cent, 2.6 per cent and 2.3 per cent respectively buoyed the positive performance.

Consequently, month-to-date (MtD) return turned positive (+0.7 per cent), while the year-to-date (YtD) loss moderated to -3.8 per cent.

Also, the overall activity level was relatively stronger, as trading volume and value rose by 4.3 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively.

Performance across sectors was mixed, with the industrial and insurance indices recording gains by 2.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent, while the consumer goods and oil and gas sectors shed -0.4 per cent and -0.8 per cent accordingly. The Banking index closed flat.

During the week under review, investors staked N9.548 billion on a total turnover of 1.082 billion shares in 17,933 deals, in contrast to a total of 1.037 billion shares valued at N9.471 billion that exchanged hands last week in 17,577 deals.

In terms of volume, the financial services industry led the activity chart with 767.001 million shares valued at N4.356 billion traded in 9,447 deals; thus contributing 70.86 per cent and 45.63 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The oil and gas industry followed with 83.528 million shares worth N1.454 billion in 1,118 deals while third place was conglomerates industry, with a turnover of 72.813 million shares worth N356.723 million in 781 deals.

Measured by volume, trading in the top three equities namely Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc accounted for 235.953 million shares worth N1.820 billion in 1,654 deals, contributing 21.8 per cent and 19.07 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Investors traded a total of 706 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N5.127 million were traded this week in six deals compared with a total of 1,415 units valued at N1.478 million transacted the previous week in 11 deals.