Purchase bargaining to drive NGX trading seen to be mixed
Investors to begin portfolio review for the new year
EXPECTA TION OF MIXED trading in the market is in the air this week amid minimal activity levels, while purchase bargaining is anticipated to drive sentiment as investors continue to review their portfolio for next year.
But in the past week, despite weak investor sentiment, the market was able to recover from the bearish sentiment of the previous week after Dangote Cement reverted to N255 price level, while the local bourse recorded a marginal gain as the NGX All-Share Index rose 1.12 percent week on week to settle at 42,353.31 points. For that reason, the market year to date return improved to 5.2 percent while market capitalisation rose to reach N22.11 trillion from N21.85 trillion.
Also, the activity level decreased as the average volume and value traded shed 49.2 percent and 43.0 percent week on week, to 1.32 billion units and N15.33 billion, respectively. The top traded stocks by volume were FBN Holdings (152.7 million units), Access Bank (99.4 million units), and Unity Bank (86.2 million units), while FBN Holdings (N1.8 billion), MTN Nigeria (N1.4 billion), and Dangote Cement (N1.1 billion) led by value.
Across sectors of the market, performance was bullish as the ICT index inched higher by 3.5 percent week on week following buy interest in MTN Nigeria (+7.2%) and Computer Warehouse Group (+5.9%). Following on the line, the Consumer and Industrial Goods indices rose 0.6 percent and 0.4 percent week on week, respectively, on the back of price uptick in Vitafoam (+5.4%), PZ Cussons (+4.2%), and Dangote Cement (+1.2).
In the same way, price appreciation in Custodian Investment and Pensions (+9.9%) and Regency Alliance Insurance (+2.5%), drove mild gains of four basis points week on week in the Insurance index. On the flip side, the Banking and Oil & Gas indices shed 1.8 percent and 0.6 percent week on week sequentially, due to selling pressure on Guaranty Trust Holding Company (-3.4%), Zenith Bank (-2.7%), Oando Plc (-4.7%), and Eterna Plc (-4.3%).
Investor sentiment, as measured by market breadth weakened to 1.1x from 1.2x recorded the previous week as 30 stocks gained against 27 stocks which lost. The top-performing stocks for the week were Meyer Pharmaceuticals (+27.3%), Royal Exchange (+15.0%), and FTN Cocoa processors (+13.5%), while Champion Breweries (-13.7%), E-Tranzact (-9.6%), and Cutix Plc (-9.4%) were the top underperforming stocks.
Elsewhere, the NGX 30 Index increased by 1.38 percent to close at 1,705.47 points as against 1,682.33 points it closed the previous week. At the end of the week also, market turnover closed with a traded volume of 211.24 million units.
International Breweries and Nascon were the key gainers, while UBN and Ecobank were the key losers.