Amid impressive earnings from quoted companies, trading on the floor of Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) resumed Tuesday with yet another significant milestone as its All-Share Index (ASI) surged to 68,334.68 points from 68,279.14 points, marking a 0.08 per cent increase.
This achievement surpasses the previous record of 66,371.20 points set on March 5, 2008, following a prior all-time high of 66,490.34 points (August 29, 2023) and 68,279.14 points recorded in the previous trading session.
The exceptional performance was primarily attributed to price appreciation in Oando Plc with investors positioning themselves in the stock after the company reached an agreement with Italian oil giant, Eni, for the acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares of its oil and gas unit, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Limited on Monday. Additionally, the demand for Beta Glass, Dangote Sugar and Sunu Assurance contributed to the gain.
As a result of this surge, the market capitalization experienced a notable increase of N31 billion, closing at N37.400 trillion compared to N37.369 trillion. This means that investors have gained N442 billion in two consecutive trading sessions. The positive performance pushed the year-to-date (YTD) return to an impressive 33.33 per cent.
Despite this overall positive trend, sectoral performance within the market remained mixed. The Consumer Goods Index recorded 1.98 per cent on the back of gains recorded in Dangote Sugar (+5.18 per cent) while the Industrial Index recorded 0.03 per cent due to investors’ appetite for BetaGlass (+10 per cent) and Cutix Plc (+3.04 per cent). On the flipside, the Banking Index which boasted a significant gain of 5.65 per cent on Monday, turned red, declining by 0.60 per cent while the Insurance (-0.11 per cent) also declined. Meanwhile, the NGX Oil and Gas Index remained stable.
Owing to the mixed performance, market activity witnessed a downward movement, with trading volume dropping by 34.04 per cent to 557.85 million units, and the value of stocks traded fell by 21.70 per cent to reach N10.210 billion which changed hands in 11,934 deals.
This is against the previous session’s 845.68 million units, N13.039 billion in value, and 7,606 deals. Notably, UBA led the activity chart with 63.32 million shares sold, valued at N951.17 million. Oando traded 61.25 million units worth N409.75 million while Fidelity Bank transacted 58.14 million units valued at N486.58 million.
Investors’ appetite for stocks waned as 31 stocks depreciated in value while 30 stocks appreciated. Beta Glass emerged as the top gainer with an impressive 10 per cent increase in stock value. Conversely, NSLTECH led the group of declining securities, with a 10 per cent decrease in stock value.
Financial analysts reacted to this strong market performance by attributing it to recent corporate actions. They anticipate that investors will continue to selectively invest in fundamentally strong stocks.
However, they also acknowledge the possibility of profit-taking activities on stocks that have seen notable appreciation in recent weeks. Despite these considerations, analysts recommend that investors seek trading opportunities in fundamentally sound stocks, given the ongoing challenges posed by the weak macroeconomic environment on corporate earnings.
Source: https://sunnewsonline.com/ngx-asi-climbs-higher-amid-impressive-h1-2023-earnings/