SAT, AUG 26 2023-theGBJournal |Nigerian equities staged a rebound on Friday, recouping the prior session loss as the benchmark index ended 0.24% stronger to settle at 65,558.91 points.
All other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX CG, NGX Premium, NGX Banking, NGX AFR. Bank Value, NGX MERI Value, NGX Oil & Gas, NGX Industrial Goods and NGX Growth indices which depreciated by 1.63%, 0.96% 3.57%, 1.82%, 0.71%, 1.69%, 0.01% and 1.74% respectively while the NGX ASeM and NGX Sovereign Bond indices closed flat.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 693.533 million shares worth N5.030 billion in 5,450 deals, contributing 38.26% and 17.17% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively, according to NGX data.
The market’s performance was bolstered by renewed investor interest in GTCO (+0.28%), ACCESSCORP (+1.85%), and WAPCO (+0.37%) offsetting losses in ZENITHBANK (-0.76%), NB (-0.26%) and UBA (-0.36%). Having gained in four (4) of five (5) trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 1.29% higher w/w.
During the week, strong performances across BUAFOODS (+17.94% w/w), STANBIC (+1.74% w/w) and DANGSUGAR (+35.71% w/w) were sufficient to offset the losses in MTNN (-0.18% w/w), ZENITHBANK (-3.68% w/w) and GTCO (-0.96%). Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 27.92%, while the market capitalization gained N446.03bn w/w to close at N35.88trn.
Analysis of Friday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 67.19%. A total of 356.02m shares valued at N4.23bn were exchanged in 6,569 deals. TRANSCORP (+9.85%) led the volume chart with 76.72m units traded while NASCON (+9.95%) led the value chart in deals worth N465.01m
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.17-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. NASCON (+9.95%) led twenty others on the leader’s log while MBENEFIT (-8.89%) topped seventeen others on the laggard’s table.
Meanwhile, Mixed sentiments dominated the global equities market as investors kept their gaze on the highly anticipated speech by the US Federal Reserve chief in Jackson Hole for insights into upcoming interest rate trends.
As of the time of writing, US equities (DJIA: -1.2%; S&P 500: +0.2%) were mixed as investors digested Nvidia’s better-than-expected earnings report amid fears of more hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve.
On the other hand, European equities (STOXX Europe: +0.7%; FTSE 100: +1.0%) were supported by expectations that subdued economic data would prompt central banks to halt their interest rate hiking cycles.
Elsewhere, in Asian markets (Nikkei 225: +0.6%; SSE: -2.0%) sentiments were shaped by mixed corporate reports and outlook for the Fed interest rate policy.
Lastly, the Emerging (MSCI EM: +1.9%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: +0.1%) market indices posted gains following bullish sentiments in Taiwan (+0.7%) and Vietnam (+0.4%), respectively.
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