Investors gained over N396 billion last week in the equities market which extended its upward trend for the fourth consecutive week, primarily driven by gains recorded by blue chip companies across the sub-sectors.
Results of trading last week on the NGX showed that the market capitalisation closed at N26.624 trillion up from N26.228 trillion the penultimate week.
Another equities gauge, the NGX All-Share index closed the week 1.5% higher at 48,881.93 points from 48,154.65 points with the Month-to-Date, MtD, and Year-to-Date, YtD gains advancing to 2.6% and 14.4%, respectively.
The blue-chip price gains such as Dangote Cement garnered 19.09% followed by Royal Exchange at 12.50%, Guinness at 11.4%, and Prestige Assurance at 9.59%.
Meanwhile, activity levels mirrored the market’s broad gauge as trading volume and value surged by 45.8% and 22.8% Week on Week. W/W, respectively.
Across sectors, the Industrial Goods Index rose 8.5% followed by Consumer Goods Index at 1.6%, the Insurance Index 1.3%, and the Oil and Gas Index garnered 0.3%.
The Banking Index declined 0.1% as the sole loser for the week.
Analysts at Cordros Research in their market review and outlook stated: “We expect the bulls to retain their dominance as buying activities due to positioning for 2022 full-year dividends will likely suppress selling activities.
In addition, we believe the outcome of the bond auction scheduled to hold next week will also shape market sentiments. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Reacting as well, analysts at InvestData Consulting Limited, stated: Being the last trading day of the week, we expect a mixed trend and sentiment to continue on profit booking and portfolio reshuffling ahead of year-end seasonality in the face of election uncertainty, as pullbacks add more strength to upside potential, so investors should take advantage of price correction ahead of year-end seasonality. Also looking at the trends and events across the globe and domestically.”
