SAT. 18 FEB, 2023-theGBJournal| In the week’s final trading session, the Nigerian equities ended its four-day winning streak as the benchmark index relapsed by 1.31% to close at 53,804.46 points.
A total turnover of 751.990 million shares worth N20.575 billion in 15,822 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 944.293 million shares valued at N22.710 billion that exchanged hands last week in 18,615 deals, according to NG Exchange data.
Trading in the top three equities namely Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and FBN Holdings Plc. (measured by volume) accounted for 249.667 million shares worth N3.915 billion in 1,984 deals, contributing 33.20% and 19.03% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Selloff in telco heavyweight, AIRTELAFRI (-6.02%) drove the market’s weak performance.
Despite having gained in four of five trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 0.96% lower w/w.
Selloffs in AIRTELAFRI (-6.02% w/w), BUAFOODS (-0.13% w/w) and ZENITHBANK (-0.79% w/w) were the major drags on the overall market, negating upticks in MTNN (+1.49% w/w), WAPCO (+0.98% w/w) and NB (+1.23% w/w). As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 4.98%, while the market capitalization shed N280.45bn w/w to close at N29.31trn.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 4.52%. A total of 172.90m shares valued at N3.77bn were exchanged in 3,077 deals. FBNH (+0.00%) led the volume chart with 47.42m units traded while GEREGU (+2.89%) led the value chart in deals worth N762.07m.
Market breadth closed negative at a 1.50-to-1 ratio with declining issues outnumbering advancing ones. AIRTELAFRI (-6.02%) topped fourteen others on the laggard’s log while WAPIC (+9.76%) led nine others on the leader’s table.
Meanwhile, sentiments remained weak in the global equities market as a spate of economic data (US CPI report and US retail sales figures) lifted expectations for further steep Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes.
Consequently, US equities (DJIA: -0.5%; S&P 500: 0.0%) were weighed down by an above-expectation inflation print, and a surprising decline in jobless claims.
Elsewhere, European equities (STOXX Europe: +1.6%; FTSE 100: +1.7%) defied the negative narrative in the global space for a second consecutive week following a rally in defensive stocks.
Asian markets – Japanese equities (Nikkei 225: -0.6%) and Chinese equities (SSE: -1.1%) – traded lower this week as investors digested economic data from the US and more hawkish commentary from the Federal Reserve.
Likewise, the Emerging (MSCI EM: -0.2%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: -0.2%) market indices posted marginal losses underpinned by selloffs in China (-1.1%) and Bahrain (-0.1%), respectively.
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