Bullish sentiment reigned for four out of the five trading days of last week. Market capitalisation and the All-Share Index (ASI) continue to surge at an unprecedented pace, resulting in investors gaining N1.84 trillion during the week that ended Friday 12 January 2024.
The capitalisation of listed equities rose to N45.44 trillion last week Friday as against N43.59 trillion of the previous week. This amounted to a gain of N363.31 billion on Monday January 8, and the daily gain surged to N1.57 trillion on Tuesday January 9.
Bears made a sudden return on Wednesday as the market capitalisation of equites closed lower at N44.88 trillion on January 10, compared to the previous day’s closing of N45.52 trillion, effectively putting the day’s loss at N638.85 billion.
On Thursday January 11, the bullish sentiment returned as investors gained N313.39 billion, followed by N243.99 billion gain on Friday January 12.
In all, a total turnover of 5.719 billion shares was recorded worth N88.828 billion executed in 80,064 deals. The level of trade last week was far higher than the previous week when 3.32 billion shares were traded worth N41.75 billion traded in 46,994 deals.
Just like last year, the financial services sub sector was the cynosure of all eyes as it accounted for 67.73 percent and 60.08 percent of the market volume and value respectively. It was followed by the conglomerates as well as the oil and gas sub sector.
ASI extended its year-to-date return to 11.06 percent. Seventy-five equities appreciated in price compared to 88 in the previous week. On the other hand, 23 stocks depreciated in price as against 17 in the previous week.
The exchange traded products (ETP) market was less active throughout last week. Investors traded 75,890 units worth N33.49 million in 334 deals. This compares to 391,760 units traded in 140 deals worth N8.45 million in the previous week.
In the bond market, traders exchanged 51,246 units of bonds worth N49.87 million in 33 deals compared to 74,677 units traded in the previous week, valued at N71.57 million executed in 32 deals.
Meanwhile, more Nigerian listed companies continue to witness improvement in their market capitalisation, as their market worth crossed the one trillion-naira benchmark in market capitalisation, boosting the drive to make the NGX one of the biggest markets on the African continent.
The companies that have met this benchmark are UBA, N1.06 trillion; Zenith Bank, N1.35 trillion; FBN Holdings, N1.01 trillion; MTN Nigeria, N5.94 trillion; Dangote Cement, N5.96 trillion; Seplat, N1.36 trillion; BUA Foods, N4.09 trillion; GTB, N1.36 trillion; Airtel Africa, N7.51 trillion; BUA Cement, N3.45 trillion, and Transcorp Hotels, N1.02 trillion.
