Investors’ profit-taking in Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and Geregu Power Plc, among others, depreciated the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) equities market by N156 billion in its Week-on-Week (WoW) performance.
With Stanbic IBTC dropping by 13.1 percent and Geregu Power depreciating by 7.2 percent, the market capitalisation closed on Friday at N36.764 trillion, dropping N156 billion from N36.92 trillion when it opened for trading.
Major drivers of the week’s loss outweighed gains in Zenith Bank which gained 3.28 percent WoW, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company (GTCO) gained 2.31 percent WoW, and Access Holdings rose by 3.79 percent WoW.
The NGX AALl-Share Index was down by 0.42 percent or 285.28 basis points to close Friday at 66,915.41 basis points from 67,200.69 basis points it opened for trading, bringing the Month-till-Date (MtD) and Year-till-Date (Ytd) returns moderated to +0.8per cent and +30.6 percent, respectively.
Sectoral performance, however, showed a mixed picture with losses in the NGX Insurance Index dropped by one percent, NGX Consumer Goods dipped by 0.5 percent, and NGX Industrial Goods deprecated by 0.1 percent, but a gain in the NGX Banking Index gained 3.5 percent. Elsewhere, the Oil and Gas Index closed flat.
According to NGX weekly market report, a total turnover of 1.496 billion shares worth N24.284 billion in 29,298 deals was traded this week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.470 billion shares valued at N24.431 billion that exchanged hands last week in 29,683 deals.
The report stated that “The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.047 billion shares valued at N12.709 billion traded in 13,667 deals; thus contributing 69.99, percent and 52.34 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
“The ICT Industry followed with 94.997 million shares worth N1.445 billion in 1,982 deals. The third place was the Conglomerates Industry, with a turnover of 80.655 million shares worth N526.409 million in 1,459 deals.
“Trading in the top three equities namely United Bank for Africa Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc and Access Holdings Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 447.125 million shares worth N6.488 billion in 4,913 deals, contributing 29.88per cent and 26.72per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.”
The report said 7,100 units valued at N1.124 million were traded this week in 66 deals compared with 13,290 units valued at N3.526 million transacted last week in 108 deals.
Analysts at Cordros Research stated, “We expect the direction of market performance to be shaped by the ongoing Q3 earnings season as investors cherry-pick fundamentally sound stocks.
“Overall, we reiterate the need for taking positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
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