The Nigerian Exchange Limited ended the first week of 2024 on a high note, backed by continued investor faith in listed companies.
The Times reported that this momentum has implanted hope for a possibly positive market in 2024, propelling the All-Share index to a 6.54% gain to close at 79,664.66 points.
Similarly, all other indexes concluded higher, with the exception of the NGX Growth and NGX Sovereign Bond indexes, which fell by 6.38% and 1.21%, respectively, while the NGX ASeM index remained unchanged.
The market analysts has revealed that the stock market has been highly exciting and optimistic in 2023, and may reasonably be expected to grow further in 2024 as more companies approach the market for listing and public offerings.
According to available statistics, the All-Share Index, which is a broad index that measures the performance of Nigerian stocks, opened the trading week at 74.773.77 index points on January 2, 2024, and closed the week at 79.664.66 points on January 5th, gaining 4,890.89 basis points or 6.54%.
Further investigation indicated that operations on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, which began the trading week with a market value of N40.917 trillion, concluded the week with a market capitalization of N43.593 trillion, earning a week-to-date gain of almost N2.676 trillion.
DANGCEM (+1.59% w/w), AIRTELAFRI (+5.99% w/w), and MTNN (+7.95% w/w) powered the market’s favourable performance throughout the week, outweighing losses in STANBIC (-5.96% w/w), GUINNESS (-7.58% w/w), and CADBURY (-11.05% w/w). As a result, the year-to-date return increased to 6.54%.
During the week, investors on the Exchange traded 3.320 billion shares worth N41.755 billion in 46,994 transactions, compared to 1.186 billion shares worth N31.425 billion sold in 23,969 transactions the previous week.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) topped the activity chart, with 2.399 billion shares worth N26.054 billion moved in 22,833 transactions, accounting for 72.25% and 62.40% of total stock turnover volume and value, respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry came in second with 213.139 million shares worth N2.434 billion traded in 2,284 transactions. The Oil and Gas Industry came in third, with a turnover of 163.313 million shares worth N2.054 billion in 3,443 transactions.
The top three equities, Fidelity Bank Plc, FCMB Group Plc, and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc, accounted for 767.964 million shares worth N7.289 billion in 4,589 transactions, accounting for 23.13% and 17.46% of total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
