Sell pressures pull NGX market cap down N124bn in a week
Traders say banking stocks will dominate trading ahead of Q2 earnings season
THE NIGE RIAN EQUITIES market lost N124 billion in two bearish sessions due to selling pressures which dragged the market performance with mixed sentiments as the All-Share Index (ASI) closed in the green on 3 of 5 trading sessions. Despite this, the benchmark index declined 0.6 per cent from the previous week to settle at 37,994.19 points while the market year to date loss worsened to -5.7 per cent as the market capitalisation decreased to close at N19.79 trillion from N19.92 trillion.
Regardless, optimism among market traders is still on growth this week ahead of the second-quarter earnings results which are expected to shape the market this week. Also, market activity is expected to follow the same pattern observed in the last few sessions, with sell-offs followed by price appreciation; and likely seen to dominate trading once more.
Similarly, the activity level was mixed as average volume rose 33.7 percent to 241.8 million units while value traded fell 14.1 percent to N2.7 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were Fidelity Bank (115.4m units), First Bank Holding (87.5m units), and Zenith Bank (76.6m units) while Zenith Bank (N1.9bn), Seplat Petroleum (N779.0m) and First Bank Holding (N659.5m) were the top traded stocks by value.
In terms of sectoral performance, 4 out of 6 indices advanced. Leading the chart for the gainers were the oil & gas and banking indices, up 6.5 percent and 3.3 percent week on week, respectively; on the back of buying interest in Seplat Petroleum (+10.0%), Total Petroleum (+9.2%), Access Bank (+5.8%) and First Bank Holding (+4.1%). In the same vein, the industrial goods and insurance indices rose 0.2 per cent from the previous week respectively as Cutix Plc (+21.0%), Wapco Plc (+2.6%), Sovereign
Trust Insurance (+15.4%) and Coronation Insurance (+9.3%) closed in the green. On the flip side, the ICT and consumer goods indices fell 4.3 per cent and 0.3 per cent week on week respectively due to price depreciation in Airtel Africa (-10.0%), Chams Plc (-4.8%), Nascon Plc (-4.8%) and Vitafoam (-3.4%).
As measured by market breadth for the week, the investor sentiment strengthened to 1.9x from 1.8x last week as 41 stocks advanced against 22 that declined. The top-performing stocks for the week were UAC development company (+33.7%), Cutix Plc (+21.0%) and John Holt (+19.7%) while Redstar Express (-15.3%), Eterna Plc (-14.8%) and Linkage Assurance (-12.9%) were the laggards.
At the close of trading for the week, the NGX 30 increased marginally by 0.8 per cent week on week to close at 1,620.89 points from 1,607.99 points the previous week’s close. Market turnover closed with a traded volume of 108.13 million units.