Equity market investors lost about N248bn last week due to a decline suffered by Julius Berger (-17.15 per cent), MTN Nigeria (-12.25 per cent), PZ Cussons (-10 per cent) and others.
The market lost N469bn in the first three days of trading on the back of sell-offs, and rebounded on Thursday and Friday with gains of N74bn and N147bn, respectively.
Consequently, the All-Share dipped by 0.42 per cent week-on-week to 104,647.37 points despite a strong interest in financial stocks, which some analysts said was driven by recent developments regarding the apex bank’s efforts to clear foreign exchange backlogs.
The CBN made the move in a bid to attract foreign investors and ensure the stability of the local currency, which strengthened against the dollar last week.
Similarly, the market capitalisation shed 0.42 per cent week-on-week to close the week at N59.17tn while the year-to-date return moderated to 39.95 per cent.
Trading activities declined with a total turnover of 1.74 billion units of shares worth N48.76bn exchanged in 45,237 deals, lower than 1.77 billion shares valued at N52.87bn that exchanged hands in 44,713 deals in the previous week.
The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.27 billion shares valued at N31.07bn traded in 23,066 deals, contributing 73.36 per cent and 63.74 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
The conglomerate industry followed with 123.24 million shares worth N1.77bn in 3,205 deals, and the consumer goods sector came in third with a turnover of 104.85 million units worth N5.29bn in 6,166 deals.
The top three stocks with the highest volume traded were United Bank for Africa, FBN Holdings and Access Holdings, which accounted for 564.88 million shares worth N16.99bn in 8,493 deals, contributing 32.56 per cent and 34.85 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
Sectoral performance for the week was mostly positive, except for the consumer goods index, which lost 0.37 per cent week-on-week, due to adverse price movements in PZ Cussons, following disapproval from the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its plan to buy out minority shareholders at N23 per unit.
On a positive note, the banking, insurance, industrial, and oil & gas sectors experienced gains.
During the week, 50 equities appreciated lower than 55 equities in the previous week, while 32 equities depreciated higher than 24 in the previous week, and 72 equities remained unchanged, lower than 75 recorded in the previous week.
Leading the gainers’ chart were Juli, gaining 46.10 per cent to N7.86; NEM Insurance added 45.11 per cent to close at N9.65 and International Energy Insurance was up 22.95 per cent to close at N1.50.
In the market, there are high expectations that more banks will release their audited reports this week and with the scheduled Monetary Policy Committee meeting, investors are expected to react to the outcomes of these twin instances.
