By Onyekachi Victoria Philip
Nigeria’s equities market recorded a surprising boost last week as investors’ wealth increased by ₦622 billion, despite a decline in trading activity and a slight drop in the benchmark index.
The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) closed the week with a market capitalisation of ₦157.057 trillion, representing a 0.39 per cent increase from the ₦156.445 trillion recorded at the opening of the week.
The growth came even as the NGX All-Share Index (ASI), which measures the overall movement of listed equities, fell marginally by 0.14 per cent to 243,462.13 points from 243,798.76 points at the start of the trading week.
The contrasting performance states a week where the value of listed companies increased despite reduced market activities, showing the impact of price movements in key stocks and corporate developments on overall market capitalisation.
Trading on the Exchange slowed during the period, with investors exchanging 2.819 billion shares valued at ₦182.499 billion in 226,729 deals.
This represented a decline from the previous week, when 3.648 billion shares worth ₦220.568 billion were traded across 251,861 deals, indicating a more cautious approach among market participants.
Despite the slower pace of transactions, the financial sector maintained its dominance, accounting for the largest share of market activity.
The sector recorded 2.006 billion shares valued at ₦99.697 billion, representing 71.17 per cent of total equity volume traded and 54.63 per cent of total value.
The dominance of banking stocks remained evident as First Holdco Plc, FCMB Group Plc and Access Holdings Plc emerged as the three most traded equities during the week.
The trio accounted for 939.402 million shares worth ₦57.673 billion, representing about one-third of total traded volume.
Market sentiment, however, showed signs of moderation as the number of advancing stocks declined.
A total of 44 equities gained, compared with 60 in the previous week, while 35 equities declined, up from 28 recorded earlier.
Among the biggest gainers were First Holdco Plc, Thomas Wyatt Nigeria Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Learn Africa Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc, while BUA Cement Plc, Red Star Express Plc, International Energy Insurance Plc, C&I Leasing Plc and PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc recorded some of the largest losses.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Exchange admitted 13.812 billion additional ordinary shares of Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc into its Daily Official List on July 16.
The latest performance suggests that while investors adopted a more cautious trading posture, confidence in selected heavyweight stocks, particularly within the banking sector, continued to support the growth of Nigeria’s capital market value.
Source: NGX weekly market performance report.