NSE ROUNDUP: Investors’ confidence lifts year-to-date return to 30%

Increasing optimism in Nigerian stocks delivered both a 2.2% or N390.257 billion rise in market capitalisation this week and upped the yield on investment of 29.97% from the start of the year to date.

The central bank, rising from its last monetary policy committee meeting for this year on Tuesday, retained the benchmark interest rate at 11.5% to allow existing monetary strategies to run their cross across the economy and this could sustain the current growth level till the end of the year or even extend it.

On the flip side, liquidity was worrisomely low, with size of trade crumbling by 84%, raising fears that market activities could keep ebbing for the rest of the year unless a major disruptive force emerge to turn things around.

All the key market performance indicators advanced. A negative market breadth was recorded, with 43 losers emerging against 27 gainers. The All Share Index (ASI) and market capitalisation simultaneously grew by 2.19%. While the former closed at 34,885.51 basis points, the latter closed at N18.228 trillion.

Read also: NSE ROUNDUP: Market returns biggest weekly gain as fixed-income fund chase stocks

Trade volumeof 1.816 billion shares worth N25.791 billion was recorded in 31,665 deals relative to the 11.400 billion shares valued at N35.892 billion posted in 39,265 deals last week.

On the activity chart, the Financial Services sector dominated trade with 1.274 billion shares estimated at N14.710 billion traded in 18,392 deals. Specifically, it added 70.15% and 57.04% to the total equity volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry came next, trading 217.170 million shares worth N231.809 million in 1,226 deals. The Consumer Goods Industry was third, trading 113.760 million shares priced at N2.598 billion in 4,568 deals.

As regards index movement, all indices climbed higher save for the NSE CG, NSE Banking, NSEAFR Bank Value, NSE AFR Div Yield, NSE MERI Growth and NSE Consumer Goods which dropped by 0.05%, 1.31%, 1.53%, 0.38%, 0.44% and 0.5% in that order. The NSE AseM Index did not budge.