Banking, industrial indices drag NGX down as stocks shed N63bn

THE LO CAL BOURSE WRAPPED up the week’s activities in the green on the last day due to improved market activities from large crosses in names such as MTN Nigeria, Guaranty Trust Holding Company, amongst others. The week’s summation, however, saw the market shed about N63 billion in losses, but it still left some analysts positing that they expect bargain hunting to dominate activities this week on the back of relative price attractiveness of stocks and release of favourable first half of 2021 earnings results.

In the meantime, the general performance of the domestic equities market was mixed as the benchmark index closed northward on 2 of the 5 trading sessions. As a result, the All Share Index (ASI) declined by 0.31 percent week on week to settle at 38547.08 points while the market loss year to date worsened to -4.3 percent. Market capitalisation fell in value to close at N20.08 trillion from N20.15 trillion at the opening of the week.

In the same spirit as the performance, the market activity level was mixed as average volume fell by 6.9 percent to 274.8 million units while the averindices age value traded rose by 36.3 percent to N2.4 billion. The top traded stocks by volume were Oando Plc (103.7m units), Fidelity Bank (64.6m units), and Wema Bank (59.0m units), while Zenith Bank (N792.5m), MTN Nigeria (N638.8m) and Access Bank (N549.3m) were the top traded stocks by value.

Across the sectoral fronts, it was a mixed outing as performance in 3 indices advanced while 3 lost. Topping the gainers’ chart was the oil & gas index, up 3.8 percent week on week due to buying interest in Oando Plc (+23.2%) and Ardova Plc (+2.5%). Similarly, the ICT and consumer goods indices gained 0.9 percent and 0.1 percent week on week respectively as a result of price appreciation in Airtel Africa (+2.3%), Champion Breweries (+9.8%), and Dangote Sugar (+4.8%).

On the flip side, the industrial goods index declined the most, down 1.3 percent week on week on the back of sell-offs in BUA Cement (-4.2%) and Cutix Plc (-0.4%); and trailed by the insurance and banking indices, down by 1.1 percent and 0.9 percent week on week respectively, driven by price depreciation in Linkage Assurance (-14.3%), Regency Alliance Insurance (-12.5%), Guaranty Trust Holding Company (-3.7%), and UBA (-2.6%).

Also, there was a weakened investor sentiment to 1.1x from 2.8x last week, as 35 stocks advanced against 31 that declined. The top performing stocks for the week were Oando Plc (+23.2%), BOC Gas (+19.5%) and FTN Cocoa Processors (+17.1%), while Linkage Assurance (-14.3%), Regency Alliance Insurance (-12.5%) and Learn Africa (-10.0%) led the top underperforming stocks for the week.

At the close of last week, the NGX 30 Index decreased by 0.6 percent week on week to close at 1,639.22 points as against 1,649.09 points at the week opening. Market turnover closed the week with a traded volume of 99.27 million units. United Capital and Fidelity Bank were the key gainers, while Guaranty Trust Holding Company and Ecobank were the key losers.