by Akpobor Jirue, Lagos
A show of deep pocket exhibited by APT Securities and Funds Limited in trading activities at the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) contributed positively to the equities market closing the month of June with a month-on-month growth of 0.76%.
According to the NGX Brokers Performance Report for the week ended June 28, 2024, APT Securities and Funds Limited led both the top 10 Stockbrokers by volume and value during the week. In terms of volume, the stocking firms traded 1,319,075,469 equities representing 24.88 percent of the total volume exchanged during the week, translating to N28.1 billion or 27.94 percent in value.
The NGX report shows that the top 10 stockbrokers are responsible for 61.30 percent of the total volume equities traded during the week valued at N75.665 billion.
Overall, trading activities on the local bourse was impressive for investors during the week under review as the all-share index rallied positively, reaching the 100,000 threshold for the first time since April 16, 2024 and was driven by buy sentiment from the window dressing activities of fund managers.
As a result of positive upsides trading, the benchmark index closed the week up by 0.32%, settling at 100,057.49 points for the first time since 16 April 2024, as investors positioned themselves in both small and large-cap corporates in anticipation of the half-year reporting season.
Consequently, the market capitalisation of listed equities increased by 0.32% week on week to N56.60 trillion, despite tepid investor sentiment and waning market activity levels. Equity investors gained a total of N178.05 billion from two out of the five trading sessions this week, bringing the year-to-date return of the index to 33.81%.
This week, trading activity was subdued, as evidenced by the total volume and value of trades, despite positive market breadth with 48 weekly gainers compared to 35 weekly losers. The total traded volume dropped by 19.69% week on week to 2.65 billion units, while the total weekly traded value decreased slightly by 5.98% week on week to N49.98 billion.
However, reversing the prior week’s performance, the total number of trades for the week improved by 51.11% week on week to 41,610 deals. Sectoral performance was largely positive this week, except for the NGX-Consumer Goods and NGX-Industrial Goods sectors, which trended downward by 0.56% and 0.33% week on week, respectively, due to negative price movements in BETAGLASS and WAPCO.
Conversely, the NGX-Oil & Gas and NGX-Insurance indices led the gainers’ chart with increases of 5.71% and 3.33%, respectively, while the NGX-Banking index also reported gains of 1.14% week on week. Stocks contributing to these gains included UCAP, MBENEFIT, SEPLAT, FBNH, and FIDELITYBK.
At the close of the week, notable performers such as CWG (+45%), FTNCOCOA (+22%), UCAP (+22%), JOHNHOLT (+20%), and MBENEFIT (+20%) emerged as the best performing securities, driven by positive activities that propelled their price movements. Conversely, negative investor sentiment led to sell-offs in JAIZBANK (-11%), DAARCOMM (-11%), CHAMPION (-11%), UPL (- 9%), and BETAGLASS (-9%), positioning these stocks as the top losers for the week.