SAT, APRIL. 15 2023-theGBJournal | Ending the holiday shortened week,the Nigerian equities continued their losing streak as the All-Share Index closed 0.10% lower Friday, to close at 51,893.94 points, the lowest level since 11 January.
Similarly, all other indices finished lower with the exception of NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Sovereign Bond which appreciated by 0.05% and 1.54% respectively while the NGX ASeM, NGX Oil & Gas, and NGX Growth indices closed flat.
Selloffs in ZENITHBANK (-0.20%), FBNH (-4.13%) and STANBIC (-3.09%) drove the market’s overall weak performance. Having lost in all trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 2.08% lower w/w.
Over the course of the week, losses in AIRTELAFRI (-10.00% w/w), ZENITHBANK (-1.96% w/w) and WAPCO (-7.75% w/w) offset gains in INTBREW (+11.11%) keeping the market’s overall performance in the red.
Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return fell to 1.25%, while the market capitalization shed N601.29bn w/w to close at N28.27trn.
Analysis of Friday’s market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 16.77%.
A total of 541.98m shares valued at N2.36bn were exchanged in 3,766 deals. CHAMS (+0.00%) led the volume chart with 293.14m units traded, while UBA (+0.59%) led the value chart in deals worth N798.65m.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.30-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. TRANSCORP (+9.74%) topped twelve others on the leader’s table while CADBURY (-9.73%) topped nine others on the laggard’s log.
A total turnover of 2.824 billion shares worth N10.964 billion in 15,686 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.054 billion shares valued at N10.050 billion that exchanged hands last week in 16,155 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Chams Holdings Company Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 2.254 billion shares worth N3.852 billion in 1,922 deals, contributing 79.81% and 35.14% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Meanwhile, global equities were positive across board this week as the outlook for US monetary tightening retreated, following the softening US Producer Price Index (PPI) data and an increase in jobless claims.
US equities (DJIA: +1.6%; S&P 500: +1.0%) were set to close the week positively. Sentiments across European equities (STOXX Europe: +1.6%; FTSE 100: +1.7%) remained upbeat, as signs of cooling inflation fueled hopes that the Federal Reserve will pause or temper its current rate-hiking cycle.
In Asia, the Japanese equities (Nikkei 225: +3.5%) closed higher taking a cue from the rally on Wall Street. Conversely, the Chinese equities (SSE: +0.3%) erased early losses in the week prompted by selloffs in Alibaba, as China’s export data lifted sentiments. The Emerging (MSCI EM: +1.0%) and Frontier (MSCI FM: +0.5%) market indices posted gains driven by bullish sentiments in China (+0.3%) and Morocco (+0.1%), respectively.
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