Equities Market Benchmark Index Hits All-time High 105,000 Basis Points

The Nigerian equities market benchmark Index crossed the 105,000 basis points all-time high last week following investors renewed interest in fundamental stocks such as BUA Foods Plc, Airtel Africa Plc, and Geregu Power Plc.

Despite profit-taking activities on banking stocks, the market remained in the green territory due to bargain hunting in BUA Foods which gained 21 per cent, Airtel Africa rose by 10 per cent and Geregu Power appreciated by 33.3 per cent to bring the Nigerian Exchange Limited All-Share Index (NGX ASI) 3.79 per cent Week-till-Date (WtD) gain to 105,722.78 basis points.

As a result, the stock market Month-till-date (MtD) and Year-till-date (YtD) investors’ return increased to 4.5per cent and 41.4per cent, respectively.

Similarly, the total market capitalization of listed equities rose by N2.1 trillion to close the week at N57.850 trillion.

Sectoral performance for the week exhibited a mixed trend. The NGX Insurance, NGX Oil & Gas, and NGX Consumer Goods indices, recorded gains of 2.66 per cent, 10.96 per cent, and 5.25 per cent week-on-week. On the contrary, the NGX Banking and NGX Industrial indices bled with losses, declining by 1.34 per cent and 1.83 per cent, respectively.

However, market breadth for the week was negative as 35 equities appreciated in price, 51 equities depreciated in price, while 68 equities remained unchanged. Juli led the gainers table by 45.54 per cent to close at N1.47, per share. Geregu Power followed with a gain of 33.30 per cent to close at N901.00, while BUA Foods went up by 20.82 per cent to close to N357.50, per share.

On the other side, Meyer led the decliners table by 18.96 per cent to close at N5.60, per share. Morison Industries followed with a loss of 18.69 per cent to close at N2.48, while DEAP Capital Management & Trust declined by 14.29 per cent to close at 60 kobo, per share.

Overall, a total turnover of 1.559 billion shares worth N36.497 billion in 42,546 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.478 billion shares valued at N47.856 billion that exchanged hands prior week in 54,982 deals.