Investors buying interest in Seplat Energy, Lafarge Africa add N636bn to market cap

By Grace Kehinde
Impressive corporate earnings by listed companies supported market performance last week, as investors increased buying interest in Nigerian Breweries, Seplat Energy, Lafarge Africa, Guinness Nigeria, Unilever Nigeria, among others.  
Pertinently, market capitalisation gained N636 billion week-on-week  (W-o-W) to close at N26.761 trillion, while the NGX All-Share Index rose by 2.43 per cent W-o-W to close at 49,638.94 basis points.
Also, most of the sector gauges closed in positive territory amid sustained buy pressure. Notably, the NGX Consumer Goods index, NGX Oil & Gas index, NGX Industrial Goods and NGX NSE-30 index increased by 6.35 per cent, 10.20 per cent, 0.51 per cent, and 2.11 per cent respectively to close at 618.11 points, 524.38 points, 2185.25 points, and 1,886.26 points respectively.
The market breadth for the week was positive as 56 equities appreciated in price, 26 equities depreciated in price, while 74 equities remained unchanged. MEYER Plc led the gainers table by 28.76 per cent to close at N3.00, per share. Academy Press followed with a gain of 25.64 per cent to close at N1.47, while Cadbury Nigeria went up by 22.02 per cent to close to N10.25, per share.
On the other side, Japaul Gold & Ventures led the decliners table by 11.76 per cent to close at 30 kobo, per share. NPF Microfinance Bank followed with a loss of 10.00 per cent to close at N1.98, while Eterna declined by 9.47 per cent to close at N6.02, per share.
Overall, a total turnover of 8.205 billion shares worth N49.145 billion in 28,622 deals was traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 1.302 billion shares valued at N17.813 billion that exchanged hands previous week in 20,212 deals.
The Consumer Goods Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 6.259 billion shares valued at N29.309 billion traded in 5,225 deals; contributing 76.28 per cent and 59.64 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Financial Services Industry followed with 1.301 billion shares worth N9.125 billion in 11,551 deals, while the Conglomerates Industry traded a turnover of 247.477 million shares worth N334.894 million in 1,348 deals.
Trading in the top three equities; Honeywell Flour Mills, FCMB Group and Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp) accounted for 6.924 billion shares worth N27.951 billion in 2,237 deals, contributing 84.39 per cent and 56.87 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.
Meanwhile, trading activities for this week will be a short one on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited as the federal government declared Monday, May 2 and Tuesday, May 3, 2022 for public holidays to mark the Worker’s Day and Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.
Analysts maintained that the Nigerian equities market will continue its positive trend, as the market enters trading for the month of May and on the influx of better than expected first quarter (Q1) corporate earnings, as investors take advantage of the numbers to position.
In the new week, analysts at Cowry Assets Management Limited expected the equities market index to rise further as investors buy more shares in anticipation for the Q1, 2022 companies release.
Analysts at Cordros Securities Limited said “In the week ahead, we expect investors to continue to rotate their portfolios towards cyclical stocks that delivered decent earnings last week.
“Thus, we see scope for the bulls to maintain dominance, albeit the magnitude of the gains will be substantially lower, as profit takers are likely to cash out on the gains across bellwether stocks. Notwithstanding, we reiterate the need for positioning in only fundamentally sound stocks as the weak macro environment remains a significant headwind for corporate earnings.”