SAT. 26 NOV, 2022-theGBJournal| Ending the perfect week, Nigerian equities closed Friday’s session stronger, bringing the All-Share index up by 2.04% to settle at 47,554.34 points, the highest point since 14 October.
All other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX Oil & Gas and NGX Sovereign Bond, which depreciated by 1.29% and 0.32% respectively, while the NGX ASeM and NGX Growth indices closed flat.
Telco heavyweights, AIRTELAFRI (+7.41%) and MTNN (+5.00%) were the primary drivers of the market’s strong close. Notably, having gained in all five trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 6.88% higher w/w, the largest weekly gain since 18 December 2020.
Over the course of the week, strong bullish sentiment in index heavyweights, AIRTELAFRI (+14.17 w/w), DANGCEM (+9.98% w/w) and MTNN (+6.60% w/w) offset losses in NESTLE (-20.67% w/w), SEPLAT (-3.57% w/w) and PRESCO (-8.71% w/w).
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 11.33%, while the market capitalization gained N1.67tn w/w to close at N25.90tn.
Analysis of Friday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 154.41%. A total of 98.98m shares valued at N5.52bn were exchanged in 2,780 deals.
FCMB (-0.91%) led the volume chart with 16.84m units traded while MTNN (+5.00%) led the value chart in deals worth N3.30bn.
Market breadth closed positive at a 2.29-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. REGALINS (+8.70%) topped fifteen others on the gainer’s table while NESTLE (-10.00%) led six others on the laggard’s log.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, AIICO Insurance Plc and Zenith Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 194.600 million shares worth N1.191 billion in 1,974 deals, contributing 27.35% and 7.76% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 461.230 million shares valued at N3.697 billion traded in 7,653 deals; thus contributing 64.81% and 24.10% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
The Conglomerates Industry followed with 99.881 million shares worth N139.213 million in 582 deals. The third place was the ICT Industry, with a turnover of 37.953 million shares worth N7.577 billion in 1,050 deals.
Meanwhile, global stocks posted positive performances as indications that the US Federal Reserve is likely to slow the pace of interest rate hikes fueled investors’ optimism.
Based on the preceding, US equities (DJIA: +1.3%; S&P 500: +1.6) were on track to close positively despite the holiday-shortened week, as the Federal Reserve meeting minutes showed support for more moderate interest-rate increases.
European stocks (STOXX Europe: +1.1% and FTSE 100: +1.7%) were boosted by signs that the US Federal Reserve could slow its pace of interest-rate hikes amid gains in retail and energy stocks.
In the same vein, Asian markets posted positive performances as the Japanese (Nikkei 225: +1.4%) and Chinese (SSE: +0.1%) equities closed higher mirroring the rally on Wall Street.
Elsewhere, the Emerging market (MSCI EM: +0.3%) closed positively, primarily driven by gains in China (+0.1%), while the Frontier market (MSCI FM: -0.6%) declined following losses in Bahrain (-0.1%).
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