18 October 2022: The Nigerian equity market closed the trading session on a bearish note following a decline of 216 basis points (bps), as the NGX all-share index dropped to 45366.32. Accordingly, the year-to-date return of the market weakened to 6.2 percent from 8.5 percent on the previous trading day.
The trading volume was 420.28 million units, increasing by about 205 percent from 137.98 million units of shares recorded at the end of the previous day’s trading. The total value that exchanged hands was N3.6 billion, representing a 16 percent decrease from the value (N4.32 billion) at the close of the previous day of trading.
CWG Plc (CWG) was the highest traded stock by volume with 258.79 million units of its shares traded in five deals. Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO) was the next with 57.41 million of its shares exchanged in 570 deals on the floor of NGX just as Zenith Bank (ZENITH) came in third highest with 13.16 million of its shares traded in 337 deals.
Airtel Africa emerged as the highest traded stock by value as N1.35 billion exchanged hands for its shares. Next was GTCO, for which N1.07 billion in value was traded in exchange for its shares. ZENITH was the third highest traded share by value at N268.75 million.
Sectoral performance was mixed for the indices under our purview. The indices for all the sectors increased except for Consumer Goods. The Banking, Pension, Oil and Gas, and Insurance sectors recorded a bullish performance as their indices closed in green. The Consumer Good sector was bearish having closed red. The Banking sector index having the highest increase, rose by 95 basis points (bps), Pension by 33bps, Oil and gas by 28bps, and Insurance by 27 bps. On the other hand, the Consumer Goods index decreased by 114bps.
The top 5 stocks gainers in the market were United Capital (9.69%), Regency Alliance Insurance Company (8.33%), Sovereign Trust Insurance (7.69%), Mutual Benefits Assurance (7.41%), and Honeywell Flour Mill (6.84%).
Conversely, some stock losers emerged at the end of the stock trading day. The top 5 decliners in the market were Airtel Africa (-10%), Nigerian Breweries (-9.80), CWG (-8.64), Jaiz Bank (-5.56), Courteville Business Solutions (-4.17)
