The Nigerian stock market, last week, continued its recent stellar performance, as it closed positive in all the four trading sessions with a gain of N350 billion, culminating in a week-on-week (W-o-W) gain of 2.53 per cent.
As a result, the NSE-All Share Index increased by 666.43 points or 2.53 per cent to close at 26,985.677 basis points as the year-to-date return for the index moved into positive territory, settling at 0.54 per cent. Similarly, the market capitalisation increased to N14.105 trillion as investors gained N350 billion.
The Nigerian equities market opened for four-trading sessions last week as public holiday was declared by the federal government to celebrate the Nigeria’s 60th Independence Day.
Notably, all the sub-sector gauges tracked closed higher except for the NSE Consumer good index which declined by 0.75 per cent to 455.27 points. The NSE Banking index appreciated the most by 4.24 per cent to 315.33 points, followed by the NSE Industrial, NSE Oil/Gas and the NSE Insurance indices which rose by 3.25 per cent, 1.79 per cent and 0.64 per cent to 1,199.19 points, 195.43 points and 136.45 points respectively.
Market breadth for the week was positive as 36 equities appreciated in price, 15 equities depreciated in price, while 112 equities remained unchanged. Total Nigeria led the gainers table by 21.00 per cent to close at N96.80, per share. Oando followed with a gain of 12.81 per cent to close at N2.29, while Sterling Bank went up by 10.34 per cent to close to N1.28, per share.
On the other side, Cornerstone Insurance led the decliners table by 15.49 per cent to close at 60 kobo, per share. University Press followed with a loss of 12.68 per cent to close at N1.24 and E-Tranzact International declined by 9.96 per cent to close at N2.35, per share.
Overall, a total turnover of 1.532 billion shares worth N16.901 billion in 17,882 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.567 billion shares valued at N20.559 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 18,396 deals.
Meanwhile, in the new week, analysts at Cowry Asset Management Limited expected the NSE ASI to close northward as investors further position in stocks with good fundamentals and dividend yields as corporates get set to release their nine months financial results. However, they advised investors to trade cautiously.
Also, analysts at APT Securities and Funds Limited said: “It is believed that investors are already positioning for the year end company corporate actions and this is expected to further peg the year to date performance at positive stance. We therefore envisage the Index to close on a bullish note year on year on the back of more bargain hunting at this time.”