By Kayode Tokede

Performance of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) equities market last week gained N292billion amid renewed bargain hunting.

The bulls returned strongly to the local bourse after defeating the bears in three of the week’s five trading sessions, as investors cherry-picked stocks following first half (H1), 2021 closure activities.

Our correspondent gathered that market capitalisation increased by N292 billion in value to close at N19.919 trillion.

Also, based on the preceding, the NGX All-Share Index advanced week-on week (W-o-W) by 553.75 basis points or 1.47 percent to close at 38,212.01 basis points.

As a result, the month-to-date (MTD) return closed at 0.8 per cent gain, while the year-to-date (YTD) loss moderated to 5.1 percent.

Notably, proprietary traders’ buying interest in Nestle Nigeria and bargain hunting in Okomu Oil, Dangote Cement, Access Bank and Dangote Sugar Refinery drove the weekly gain.

Sectoral performance was broadly positive with the NSE Consumer goods index leading the gainers by 5.14 percent to close at 600.96 points buoyed by buy pressure on Nestle Nigeria and Flour Mills of Nigeria.

Similarly, the NSE Banking, NSE Insurance and the NSE Industrial indices advanced by 1.34 per cent, 2.04 percent and 2.10 percent to 370.73 points, 203.33 points and 1,925.96 points respectively. On the flip side, the NSE Oil/Gas index moderated by 1.05 percent to 311.28 points.

Market breadth for the week was positive as 43 equities appreciated in price, 26 equities depreciated in price, while 87 equities remained unchanged.

Ikeja Hotel led the gainers table by 60 percent to close at N1.60, per share. Linkage Assurance followed with a gain of 30.77 percent to close at 85 kobo, while Wema Bank went up by 23.33 percent to close to 74 kobo, per share.

On the other side, BOS Gases led the decliners table by 18.96 percent to close at N8.55, per share. Regency Assurance followed with a loss of 14.29 percent to close at 42 kobo and Royal Exchange declined by 12.70 percent to close at 55 kobo, per share.

Overall, a total of 1.021 billion shares worth N14.145 billion in 17,565 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.006 billion shares valued at N10.330 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 17,165 deals.

The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 721.728 million shares valued at N5.995 billion traded in 8,709 deals; contributing 70.70 percent and 42.38 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Consumer Goods Industry followed with 99.083 million shares worth N2.395 billion in 3,703 deals, while ICT Industry traded a turnover of 72.718 million shares worth N3.407 million in 643 deals.

Trading in the top three equities; Guaranty Trust Holding Company, Wema Bank and Zenith Bank (measured by volume) accounted for 213.871 million shares worth N3.818 billion in 3,023 deals, contributing 20.95 percent and 26.99 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

On Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) platform, a total of 13,050 units valued at N930,262.30 were traded last week in 17 deals compared with a total of 101,876 units valued at N1.732 million transacted previous week in 19 deals, while on the Bonds market, a total of 61,298 units valued at N61.267 million were traded last week in 26 deals compared with a total of 216,675 units valued at N215.720 million transacted previous week in 44 deals.

In the new week, analysts at Cowry Assets Management Limited expected the equities market to trade northward as investors position ahead in stocks of fundamentally sound companies which are also expected to pay interim dividends.

Analysts at Cordros Capital Limited said that “With the first half (H1) of 2021 earnings season on the horizon, we believe investors will be looking for clues on the sustainability of the decent corporate earnings released for Q1, 2021.

“However, we expect mixed market performance in the week ahead as bargain hunting in dividend-paying stocks will be matched by intermittent profit-taking activities. Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the unimpressive macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”

Afrinvest Limited said that “In the coming week, we expect to see slight profit-taking at the start of the week. However, we envisage market performance will be dictated by the performance of the H1:2021 earnings results.”