Trading at the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited sustained a bullish momentum, as the All-Share Index rose Week-on-Week by 3.23 per cent to settle at 40,221.17 basis points. The week saw investors gain N655.89bn at the end of the four days trading sessions, as Friday was declared a public holiday to celebrate Nigeria’s 61st Independence anniversary.
Market activity came in stronger, as high networth investors sustained their investment in the equities market, given the volume of trade in Dangote Cement, Nestle Nigeria and FBN Holdings. Hence the volume and value of stocks traded appreciated by 69.46 per cent and 16.25 per cent respectively to 2.19 billion units and N16.18bn respectively, while total deals fell to 14,373 deals.
Specifically, investors in University Press, DANGCEM, Presco and Courteville Business Solutions went home smiling at the end of the week, given the increases in their respective share prices. Given the bullish sentiment in the equities space, the Year-to-Date loss of the domestic bourse melted to 0.12 per cent.
Save for the insurance index, which fell by 7.58 per cent, sectoral performance was positive, as four of the five indices tracked closed northwards. At the end of the week’s trading, the banking, consumer goods, oil and gas and the industrial indices rose by 0.60 per cent, 3.35 per cent, 0.92 per cent and 6.65 per cent respectively.
The domestic stock had opened the week on the red territory, after the ASI declined by 0.25 per cent, as investors took profit on bellwether shares, especially Guaranty Trust Holding Co, Zenith Bank and BUA Cement.
Amid stiff competition between the bulls and the bears on the second trading day, investors saw huge percentage drop in the share price of Africa Prudential and AXA Mansard Insurance, even as ZENITHBANK and FCMB Group recorded decline in share prices.
High capitalised stocks appreciated the most on Wednesday especially Nestle Nigeria, DANGCEM and PRESCO, leaving the ASI to rebound strongly by 1.89 per cent, as the bulls took over the domestic bourse on impressive appreciation in several companies’ share prices.
With the appreciable capital gain in DANGCEM shares, market transactions came in strong on Thursday to close the month’s trading, as the huge value of DANGCEM shares of N1.13bn exchanged hands
“In the new week, we expect the equities market index to close in positive territory, as investors take position ahead of companies’ nine months financial results releases,” analysts at Cowry Asset Management said.
Meanwhile, a fresh report released by the NGX on domestic and foreign portfolio participation in equities trading revealed that total equities market transactions declined marginally in August 2021, compared to the volume of transactions executed in July 2021, as foreign portfolio investors sold more than they bought, hence further moving out of the local equities market. However, the domestic institutional and retail investors gradually moved into the market to pick up the sold shares at cheaper prices.
The local investors appeared to be bullish amid releases of corporates’ half-year financial results, which have been generally positive, and the prospect for half-year dividend payments in the month of September. Notably, the relative downward trend in interest rates, especially for 364-day treasury bills, also contributed to the increased inflow of transactions by local investors on the domestic bourse Month-on-Month.
Accordingly, domestic institutional investors transacted the most, followed by retail investors; while foreign portfolio investors’ contribution was the least but with a larger increase in outflows.
