Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company Plc (GTCO) and Zenith Bank Plc, demonstrated their dominance during activities in the financial service sector of the Nigerian stock market last week.
Three bank stocks contributed 26.1 per cent to the activities.
With the contribution, the financial sector maintained its dominance in volume terms with 1.4 billion shares valued at N22.2 billion traded in 17,300 deals.
Hence, it contributed 72.9 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value. Despite a nine-basis point decline in the all-share index (ASI) on the final trading day of the week, the local bourse closed in an upbeat last week, marking its ninth consecutive week of positive performance.
The positive outing was underpinned by increased demand in banking stocks: Access Corp (+9.63 per cent), Ecobank TransNational Incorporated (+9.4 per cent), United Bank for Africa (+7.3 per cent), and Zenith Bank (+6 per cent) alongside gains in Infinity (+59.3 per cent, SCOA (+28.9 per cent), and other major stocks such as MTNN (+2.7 per cent) and BUA Cement (+0.5 per cent). The year-to-date performance stood at 41.2 per cent.
Precisely, trading in the top three banks (measured by volume) accounted for 491.5 million shares worth N15.5 billion in 5,997 deals, contributing 26.1 per cent to the total equity turnover volume.
Following the banking sector in volume terms last week was the services industry with 97 million shares worth N616.265 million in 1,949 deals.
The third place was the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 86.4 million shares worth N2.1 billion in 3,819 deals.
According to The Guardian, on the whole, a total turnover of 1.9 billion shares worth N31.6 billion was recorded in 33,020 deals by investors on the floor of the Exchange, in contrast to a total of 2.4 billion shares units valued at N45 billion that were exchanged in 34,704 deals on December 8, 2023.
Consequently, the index and market capitalisation appreciated by 1.2 per cent to close the week at 72,389.23 and N39.6 trillion respectively.
Similarly, all other indices finished higher except NGX Insurance, NGX ASeM, NGX Oil & Gas and NGX Growth which depreciated by 0.96 per cent, 1.04 per cent, 0.27 per cent and 5.23 per cent respectively while the NGX Sovereign Bond index closed flat. (Guardian).
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