NGX market cap down N516.3bn in a week on price depreciation in bellwethers
INVESTORS ARE NOW wellpositioned ahead of the half-year corporate earnings season while they continue to take advantage of fundamentally cheap and attractive stocks amid renewed interest in the banking space this week. Nevertheless, market analysts are with high optimism for improved activity levels going into the second half of the trading year.
Last week, the NGX shed N516.3 billion with sustained sell pressures and price deprecations as the NSE All-Share Index trended southwards on 4 of 5 trading sessions. Consequently, the benchmark index shed 2.56 percent week on week to settle at 37,658.26 points while the market year to date loss worsened to -6.5 percent. As a result, the market capitalisation decreased in value to close at N19.6 trillion.
The negative performance was largely due to price depreciation in bellwethers such as Airtel Africa (-10.0%), Dangote Cement (-3.9%), and BUA Cement (-3.4%), while the level of trading activity waned as the average volume and valthe ue traded for the week fell 18 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively, to 202.7 million units and N2.4 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were Zenith Bank (74.2m), Transnational Corporation
(62.2m), and Access Bank (49.0m) while Zenith Bank (N1.7bn), Stanbic IBTC (N586.5m) and MTN Nigeria (N534.3m) were the top traded stocks by value.
A further analysis on sectoral fronts showed mixed market performance as 3 of 6 indices closed in the red. The ICT index was the biggest loser, down 5.2 percent week on week following losses in Airtel Africa
(-10.0%) and MTN Nigeria (-1.2%). The industrial goods and insurance indices trailed, shedding 3.3 percent and 0.8 percent from the previous week respectively due to sell-offs in
Dangote Cement (-3.9%), BUA Cement (-3.4%), Lasaco Assurance (-8.7%), and Aiico Insurance (-3.7%).
Conversely, the banking index led gainers, up 0.9 per cent from the previous week’s close on account of buying interest witnessed in Stanbic IBTC (+2.7%) and Fidelity Bank (+2.2%). Similarly, the consumer goods and oil & gas indices rose 0.6 percent and 0.1 percent week on week respectively as investors took a position in Vitafoam (+17.8%), Honeywell Flour (+10.7%), Conoil Plc (+2.0%), and Oando Plc (+1.0%).
Investor sentiment measured by market breadth weakened to 0.9x (against 1.7x recorded last week) as 30 stocks advanced against 34 that declined. The best performers were Linkage Assurance (+18.2%), Vitafoam (+17.8%), and Honeywell Flour (+10.7%) while the worst performers were Royal Exchange (-12.5%), Airtel Africa (-10.0%), and Nigerian Police Force Microfinance Bank (-8.9%).