The Nigerian Exchange reversed its losing streak last week, gaining N295 billion despite weaker trading activities.
The All-Share Index’s year-to-date performance improved to +30.69%, driven by strong buying interest in Flourmill (+10.00% WoW), Oando (+4.42% WoW), and GTCO (+2.75% WoW).
The Exchange’s positive performance last week was attributed by analysts to sector rotation and portfolio rebalancing, driven by optimism from Q3 earnings and undervalued stocks with growth potential.
The All-Share Index rose by 0.50% to close at 97,722.28 points, while market capitalisation increased by 0.50% to N59.22 trillion.
Despite a year-to-date return of 30.69%, the Nigerian Exchange saw more decliners (45) than gainers (39) last week, reflecting cautious investor sentiment amid economic uncertainties.
Trading activity slowed, with 1.482 billion shares worth N38.88 billion exchanged in 44,795 deals, compared to 6.468 billion shares valued at N75.75 billion in 48,804 deals the previous week.
When measured by volume, the Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 1.068 billion shares valued at N19.82bn traded 21,001 deals; thus contributing 72.04 per cent and 50.98 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Oil and Gas Industry recorded a turnover of 103.143 million shares worth N11.35 billion in 8,200 deals, while the Consumer Goods Industry followed with 77.198 million shares worth N2.845 billion in 4,266 deals.
The top three most traded equities for the week were Access Holdings Plc, United Capital Plc, and United Bank for Africa Plc.
They accounted for 433.794 million shares worth N10.27bn in 8,790 deals, contributing 29.27 per cent and 26.43 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
Sectoral performance was largely positive, with three out of five sectors showing gains.
The NGX-Insurance, NGX-Banking, and NGX-Consumer Goods indices led the charge, rising by 2.84%, 2.32%, and 0.60%, respectively.
This was driven by strong investor interest in stocks like Flour Mills, United Bank for Africa, Mansard, GTCO, Cornerstone Insurance, and Champion.
The NGX-Oil & Gas and NGX-Industrial sectors saw slight declines of 0.29% and 0.20%, respectively, due to adverse price movements in stocks like Oando, BUA Cement, and Berger.
At the week’s close, the top-performing stocks were John Holt (+61%), Eunisell (+46%), Tantalizer (+34%), SUNU Assurance (+32%), and Flourmills (+23%).
