SAT, DEC 16 2023-theGBJournal|The Nigerian equities market ended its four-day winning streak on Friday as the benchmark index relapsed by 0.09% to close at 72,389.23 points.
The market, however, did enough in the cause of the week to end the week in green. Having gained in four of five trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 1.18% higher w/w, it’s eight consecutive weekly gain, gaining 1.18% to extend weekly gains.
Selloff in Tier 1 banks namely, UBA (-1.83%), ACCESSCORP (-2.63%), and FBNH (-4.92%) drove the market’s weak performance, outweighing gains in ZENITHBANK (+1.92%), DANGSUGAR (+0.17%), and WAPCO (+0.34%).
Over the course of the week, strong performances in MTNN (+2.68% w/w), BUACEMENT (+0.52% w/w), and ZENITHBANK (+6.00% w/w) drove the market’s positive performance, outweighing losses in FBNH (-2.73% w/w), INTBREW (-2.22% w/w) and UNILEVER (-0.34 w/w).
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 41.42%, while the market capitalization gained N463.76bn w/w to close at N39.61trn.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 9.49%.
A total of 307.15m shares valued at N6.57bn were exchanged in 6,016 deals. GTCO (+3.40%) led both the volume and value chart with 51.08m units traded in deals worth N2.04bn.
Market breadth closed positive at a 2.56-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering the declining ones. CADBURY (+9.93%) topped forty others on the leader’s table while UNIVINSURE (-7.14%) led fifteen others on the laggard’s log.
Meanwhile, Global markets are set to close the week on a positive note, fueled by optimism that the US economy is poised for a ‘soft landing’ in the coming year, potentially lifting other economies worldwide.
Thus, US equities (DJIA: +2.8%; S&P 500: +2.5%) printed higher, driven specifically by general market sentiment amid strong November retail sales data.
Sequentially, European equities (STOXX Europe: +1.0%; FTSE 100: +1.3%) also posted gains following the positive signs from the US economy despite the more cautious stances from the ECB and BoE on interest rates.
Meanwhile, performance in the Asian markets (Nikkei 225: +2.1%; SSE: -0.9%) was mixed as the Japanese market advanced due to dovish signals from the US Fed and BoJ while the series of disappointing economic data for November triggered cautious trading in the Chinese market.
Finally, trading in the Emerging (MSCI EM: +1.8%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: +1.0%) markets were bullish, supported by the gains in Brazil (+3.0%) and Iceland (+2.9%), respectively.
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