Following a series of bearish trades at the Nigerian Exchange Group in October, this month of November sprang forth with hope, as NGX All Share Index and market capitalisation appreciated by 0.81 per cent to close last week’s trade at 44,269.18 and N24.112tn respectively.
All other indices finished higher, with the exception of NGX Main Board, NGX CG, NGX Banking, NGX Pension, NGX Insurance, NGX AFR Bank Value, NGX MERI Value, NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Oil and Gas as well as NGX Sovereign Bond indices, which depreciated by 0.44 per cent, 0.27 per cent, 1.87 per cent, 0.44 per cent, 1.35 per cent, 0.79 per cent, 0.98 per cent, 2.32 per cent, 5.37 per cent and 1.36 per cent respectively, while the NGX ASeM and NGX Growth indices closed flat.
Twenty equities appreciated in price during the week, lower than previous week’s 29. Forty three equities depreciated in price higher than 31 the previous week, while 94 remained unchanged lower than the 97 recorded penultimate week.
Meanwhile, investors traded 1.410 billion shares worth N15.510bn in 19,025 deals against 598.817 million shares valued at N14.234bn that exchanged hands, penultimate week, in 15,859 deals.
The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 804.570 million shares valued at N6.3bn in 9,922 deals; thus contributing 57.04 per cent and 40.62 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The agriculture sector followed with 357.623 million shares worth N287.992m in 560 deals. The third place was the conglomerates industry, with a turnover of 68.309 million shares worth N97.051m in 530 deals.
Trading in the top three equities namely Access Holdings, FTN Cocoa Processors and Fidelity Bank (measured by volume) accounted for 800.622 million shares worth N3.373bn in 2,051 deals, contributing 56.76 per cent and 21.75 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Four thousand, five hundred and seventy-seven units valued at N531,565.05 were traded last week in 28 deals against 6,744 units valued at N1.725m transacted penultimate week in 26 deals.
Also, 121,712 units valued at N119.22 million were traded in 16 deals against 1,963 units valued at N1.736m transacted penultimate week in six deals.
Analysts have, however, said the coming weeks will determine if the bullish trend will return on the floor of the exchange after a long bearish trend.
“One bullish trade is not enough to predict how the market will end in November. Though we will like to avoid bearish sentiments, the coming weeks will determine that,” one of the finance analysts, Ovie Ogidiaka, stated.
