By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 2 (Radarr Africa) – Nigerian stocks closed October with a gain of about N2 trillion in market capitalisation, as a 2.86 per cent rally in the final week of the month reversed three weeks of losses, Nairametrics and BusinessDay reported.
Market capitalisation on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) rose from about N163.1 trillion at the end of September to about N165 trillion, according to Nairametrics. The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) gained 1.23 per cent over the month, taking its year-to-date return to 63.42 per cent.
The index fell 0.97 per cent in the first full trading week, to October 9, and posted further losses in the second and third weeks, Nairametrics said. It then climbed from 244,956.94 points on October 22 to 254,299.49 points on October 30, a gain of 3.81 per cent.
BusinessDay reported that investors gained N4.6 trillion in the final week alone, with market capitalisation rising 2.86 per cent to N165.114 trillion. The newspaper said the market closed Friday up 0.09 per cent.
Advancing stocks numbered 33 in the final week, up from 20 the week before, while decliners fell to 48 from 55 and unchanged stocks fell to 65 from 71, BusinessDay reported. The newspaper said “market sentiment improved week-on-week with more equities advancing and fewer declining”.
Trading activity picked up sharply. Weekly turnover reached 7.619 billion shares worth N637.826 billion in 192,138 deals, against 2.024 billion shares worth N110.773 billion in 173,113 deals a week earlier, according to BusinessDay. The financial services sector accounted for 91.75 per cent of volume and 89.91 per cent of value.
First HoldCo, Guaranty Trust Holding Company and United Bank for Africa together accounted for 80.02 per cent of weekly volume, or 6.096 billion shares, and 85.36 per cent of value, or N544.438 billion, the newspaper said.
Among the week’s major movers, BusinessDay listed Dangote Cement, up 27.81 per cent, Access Holdings, up 7.92 per cent, MTN Nigeria, up 3.03 per cent, and Aradel Holdings, up 2.48 per cent.
The month’s gains were not broad-based. Of 146 securities tracked by Nairametrics for October, 28 gained, 72 declined and 46 were unchanged. Nairametrics noted that “declining stocks outnumbered advancing stocks” over the month and that the banking, insurance and consumer goods indices fell.
In the final week, 33 stocks rose, 48 fell and 65 were unchanged, the same breadth figures reported by BusinessDay.
The market had already set a record earlier in the final week. In a separate report on the October 27 session, Nairametrics said market capitalisation hit a record N164.91 trillion, up from N163.16 trillion the previous day, with the ASI closing at 253,990.06 points. That session added N1.75 trillion and volume reached 5.23 billion shares, with First HoldCo accounting for 4.87 billion shares across 1,785 deals.
Other movers that session included UPDCREIT, up 10 per cent to N19.25, Honeywell Flour Mills, up 9.67 per cent to N21.55, and NAHCO, up 8 per cent to N151.20, Nairametrics said. Presco fell 10 per cent to N1,840.80 and Transcorp fell 9.70 per cent to N32.60. The NGX Insurance Index slipped to 1,030.64 from 1,056.47, the steepest sector fall, while the Banking Index was essentially flat at 2,574.61, with Access Holdings up 3.26 per cent to N28.50 and GTCO down 1.52 per cent to N123.20. The number of deals fell 17.79 per cent to 35,882.
