The Equity market touched the highest peak since 2008 on Friday, hitting N34,3 trillion from N33.7 trillion in the previous trading. The All-Share index advanced by 3.4% w/w to close at 63,040.41 points, pushing the YTD return to +23.0%..
The local stock market extended its move into the green territory last week, following bargain hunting in DANGCEM (+5.3% against N290 per share), STANBIC (+17.9% from N57.65 per share), and FBNH (+19.1% against N19 per share) stocks.
Likewise, activity levels mirrored the market’s broad gauge as trading volume and value surged by 324.7% w/w and 250.0% w/w, respectively, with FBNH accounting for about 48.6% and 61.5% of the total trading volume and value.
From a sectoral standpoint, the Banking (+9.8%), Oil and Gas (+7.2%), Industrial Goods (+2.2%), and Insurance (+0.7%) indices closed in the green while the Consumer Goods (-0.2%) index declined.
Analysts at Cordros Securities expect investors to follow the half-year trajectory in their fortune hunting during the coming week.
“With the half-year earnings season on the horizon, we believe investors will look for clues on the sustainability of the decent corporate earnings released for Q1-23.
“However, we expect mixed market performance in the week ahead as bargain hunting in dividend-paying stocks will be matched by intermittent profit-taking activities,” Cordros said in a note to its clients.
On the other hand, Naira dipped to the worst depth on Friday, hitting N776.90/$ (against N762.63/$) – the highest rate of depreciation since the unification of the forex windows on June 14, 2023.when the Naira exchanged N664.04/$ against N471.67/$ at the I&E window on the previous day.
Daily turnover maintained its low streak, recording a slight increase to $98.60 million from Thursday’s $89.32 million.
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