Transactions in the shares of Transnational Corporation Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and Jaiz Bank Plc, last week, lifted the volume of shares traded, as a turnover of 1.8 billion shares worth N27.2 billion was recorded in 36,286 deals.
The top three equities accounted for 459.2 million shares worth N3.3 billion in 3,645 deals, contributing 25.3 per cent to the total equity volume.
On the sectoral activity chart, the financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 904.9 million shares valued at N8.5 billion traded in 12,883 deals.
The sector contributed 49.8 per cent to the total equity turnover of the conglomerate industry followed by 263.8 million shares worth N540.3 million in 1,651 deals. The consumer goods industry ranked third with a turnover of 238.9 million shares worth N5.8 billion in 7,635 deals.
Consequently, the All-Share Index (ASI) and market capitalisation appreciated by 4.3 per cent to close the week at 53,098.46 and N28.626 trillion respectively.
All other indices finished higher except NGX Insurance, NGX AFR Div Yield, and NGX Sovereign bond indices, which depreciated at 1.92 per cent, 2.82 per cent, and 0.02 per cent, while NGX Asem index closed flat.
On the price movement chart, 50 equities appreciated during the week, higher than 49 equities in the previous week. Thirty-two equities depreciated, unchanged from 32 equities in the previous week, while 74 equities remained unchanged lower than 75 equities recorded in the previous week.
Analysts predicted the return of the bears through profit-taking in the near future, given the five consecutive weeks of bullish run in the market.
Chief Research Officer of Investdata Consulting, Ambrose Omordion said: “We note that investors are continuing their search for commodity-backed stocks with good fundamentals and positive returns above the inflation rate. On this note, we expect the fixed income market players to hedge against the spiralling inflation in stocks with high earnings yields.
“However, we warn that market corrections are underway as a result of profit-taking, hence the need to rely on your stop-loss effectively at this point.
“This is even as the markup phase signals continuation, especially when the high cap stocks that control 70 per cent of market capitalisation move up ahead of reactions to their earnings and expected dividend payments in May and June 2022.”
Cordros Capital said: “In the near term, we think the bears are likely to book profit across most counters given the five-week bullish run in the market.
“Thus, we see more of a ‘choppy theme’ as cautious trading takes center stage ahead of the MPC meeting scheduled later in the month.
“Notwithstanding, we advise investors to take positions in only fundamentally justified stocks as the weak macro story remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”
Further breakdown of last week’s trading showed that a total of 175,506 units of Exchange Traded Products valued at N6.8 million were traded last week in 36 deals compared with a total of 147,708 units valued at N3 million transacted in 19 deals during the preceding week.
Also, 43,629 units of bonds, valued at N48.5 million were exchanged in 33 deals compared with a total of 13,800 units valued at N14.4 million transacted in seven deals.
According to the Exchange, there were no trades recorded in the derivatives segment while the number of open interest (OI) remains at two contracts.
