Lagos – The local bourse regained losses from earlier trading sessions to close slightly bearish, as sell-offs in market bellwethers outpaced last-minute bargain hunting activities.
A total turnover of 1.198 billion shares worth N12.273 billion in 18,293 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of the Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.113 billion shares valued at N13.465 billion that exchanged hands in the previous week in 15,036 deals.
The benchmark index posted losses on four of the five trading sessions, falling 1.0 per cent week-on-week (W-o-W) to settle at 31,139.35 points with year-to-date return moderated to -0.9 per cent while market capitalisation shed N1.3 billion to close at N11.6 trillion.
Activity level was mixed as average volume rose 7.6 per cent to 239.2 million units while average value traded declined by 8.9 per cent to N2.5 billion.
The top traded stocks by volume were Access Bank with 317.4 million units, United Bank for Africa with 103.2 million units and Zenith Bank with 102.9 million units while Zenith Bank at N2.3 billion, Access Bank at N2.0 billion and Guaranty Trust Bank at N1.7 billion topped trades by value.
However, the market turned on Friday with the ASI rising 0.8 per cent, largely on the back of bargain hunting in Guaranty Trust Bank (+3.7%), Dangote Cement (+0.9%), and International Breweries (+8.1%).
Performance across sectors was mixed as only two of five major indices advanced W-o-W. The Banking index (+3.8%) led gainers due to sustained buy interest in Access Bank and Fidelity Bank (+10.7%), followed by the industrial goods Index which gained 2.4 per cent as investors positioned in Cement Company of Northern Nigeria and Lafarge WAPCO.
Conversely, sell pressures in Seplat Petroleum Development Company, Total Nigeria and Forte Oil drove a southward movement in the oil & gas index which fell 4.0 per cent.
In the same vein, the consumer goods index declined 2.3 per cent on the back of price depreciation in Cadbury Nigeria and Nigerian Breweries, while the insurance index trimmed -1.1 per cent following losses in Sovereign Trust Insurance (-12.0%) and NEM Insurance (-6.4%).