Nigeria’s Stock Market Appreciates by N249 Billion Last Week

Nigeria’s stock investors gained N249 billion last week as the Exchange continues to set a new bullish record despite the nation’s uncertainty and weak macro economic fundamentals.

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) market capitalisation gained 1.59 percent or N249 billion from N15.958 trillion recorded in the previous week to close at N16.207 trillion last week.

The NSE All-Share Index expanded by 1.56 percent or 485.48 index points to settle at 31,016.17 index points last week, up from 30,530.69 index points posted a week earlier.

This brings Nigerian Stock Exchange’s year-to-date return to 15.55 percent, the second highest in the world.

During the week, investors traded 2.067 billion shares worth N22.636 billion in 25,187 deals, against a total of 1.909 billion shares valued at N23.610 billion that were transacted in 23,578 deals in the previous week.

Breaking down activities for the week, the financial services sector led activity chart with 1.575 billion shares valued at N13.725 billion and exchanged in 14,521 deals. The sector, therefore, contributed 76.21 percent and 60.63 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

This was followed by the consumer goods sector with 178.574 million shares worth N3.609 billion exchanged in 4,669 deals. The conglomerate sector came third with a turnover of 102.697 million shares valued at N155.195 million in 599 deals.

Access Bank Plc, FBN Holding Plc and Zenith Bank Plc were the top three most traded stocks by volume and accounted for a combined 686.338 million shares worth N7.599 billion in 4,557 deals. Therefore, the three contributed 33.21 percent and 33.57 percent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.