…Renewed bank concerns sway global markets
SAT, APRIL. 29 2023-theGBJournal| Nigerian stock market closed higher Friday as traders digested more corporate earnings.
The All-Share index finished the day’s trading session up by 0.32% to settle at 52,403.51 points. All other indices finished higher with the exception of NGX MERI Growth and NGX Oil and Gas which depreciated by 1.58% and 0.14% respectively while the NGX ASeM, NGX Growth and NGX Sovereign Bond indices closed flat.
A total turnover of 14.029 billion shares worth N59.007 billion in 24,048 deals was traded by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 3.920 billion shares valued at N15.620 billion that exchanged hands last week in 16,856 deals, according to the NGX Exchange data.
Trading in the top three equities namely Transnational Corporation Plc, Access Holdings Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc, (measured by volume) accounted for 13.116 billion shares worth N47.928 billion in 6,614 deals, contributing 93.49% and 81.22% to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Gains in BUAFOODS (+5.56%), WAPCO (+0.42%) and ACCESSCORP (+1.50%) outweighed losses in telco heavyweight, MTNN (-0.57%) alongside GTCO (-0.20%) and NB (-2.59%) keeping the market in the positive terrain.
Having gained in all four trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 2.04% higher w/w, its first week of gain in the month.
Over the course of the week, strong bullish sentiment in index heavyweights, AIRTELAFRI (+4.34% w/w), MTNN (+2.10% w/w) and BUAFOODS (+11.76% w/w) offset losses in NESTLE (-3.38% w/w), GTCO (-0.60% w/w) and NB (-11.48% w/w).
As a result, the year-to-date (YTD) return rose to 2.25%, while the market capitalization gained N570.52bn w/w to close at N28.53tn
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 25.83%.
A total of 3.13bn shares valued at N13.07bn were exchanged in 5,573 deals.
TRANSCORP (-9.94%) led the volume and value charts with 2.73bn units traded in deals worth N8.52bn, this was following a mutual agreement between Femi Otedola and Tony Elumelu of which Femi Otedola exited his recently acquired 6% stake in the company Friday.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.05-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. BERGER (+9.86%) topped nineteen others on the leader’s log while CUTIX (-10.00%) topped eighteen others on the laggard’s table.
At the global markets, although Q1-23 corporate earnings remained the focal point in the global equities space this week, sentiments were swayed by renewed bank concerns, and expectations for the Fed’s meeting next week.
As of the time of writing, US equities (DJIA: +0.1%; S&P 500: +0.0%) were moderately positive as a string of better-than-expected results from mega-cap tech names – Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet, – pushed investors to look beyond signs of the weak economic outlook.
Elsewhere, European equities (STOXX Europe: -1.2%; FTSE 100: -1.3%) dipped following data showing that the Eurozone GDP grew marginally by 0.1% in Q1-23, missing market expectations of a 0.2% growth.
In Asia, Chinese equities (SSE: +0.7%) rebounded from early losses as Q1-23 earnings from some industry leaders bolstered confidence in the nation’s economic recovery outlook. Likewise, Japanese equities (Nikkei 225: +1.0%) closed higher as investors cheered the Bank of Japan’s decision to keep its ultra-lax monetary policy unchanged.
Finally, the Emerging (MSCI EM: -0.9%) market index declined following bearish sentiments in Taiwan (-0.2%), while the Frontier (MSCI FM: +0.5%) market index closed positively driven by gains in Vietnam (+0.6%).
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