Despite the economic challenges Nigeria is grappling with, the Equities market investors N409 billion in the past week as the Nigerian Exchange Limited saw a marginal increase in trading activities, with the All-Share Index rising by 1.12 per Cent week-on-week to reach 67,200.69 points.

This was according to the summary of data from NGX in the past week.

Accordingly, the market capitalization of listed equities also increased by 1 per cent week-on-week to reach N36.919tn, and the year-to-date return of the ASI rose to 31.12 per cent.

In their weekly report, analysts at Cowry Assets Management Limited said, “Market remained in a consolidation range with low trading volume and a positive market breadth. The positive trend was driven by increasing expectations for the Q3 earnings season, despite macroeconomic policy uncertainties and corporate announcements of closed periods.”

In the week under review, four of five trading sessions made a bullish move, resulting in the N409 billion gains primarily driven by positive price movements in the Industrial goods index.

Sectoral performance was mostly positive as all other indices finished higher except for NGX Consumer Goods, NGX Banking, NGX AFR Bank Value, NGX MERI Growth and NGX Sovereign Bond, which depreciated by 0.16 per cent, 0.78 per cent, 0.94 per cent, 0.32 per cent and 0.56 per cent respectively. In contrast, the NGX Premium and NGX ASeM indices closed flat.

In terms of trade, over 1.470 billion shares worth N24.431 billion were traded in 29,683 deals by investors on the exchange floor, compared to 2.410 billion shares valued at N22.115 billion that exchanged hands the previous week in 27,965 deals.

The Financial Services Industry led the activity chart with 929.631 million shares valued at N12.948 billion traded in 13,626 deals, thus contributing 63.25 per cent and 53.00 per cent to the total Equity Turnover Volume and value, respectively. The Healthcare Industry followed with 171.236 million shares worth N334.792 million in 452 deals.

The Oil and Gas Industry was in third place, with a turnover of 90.156 million shares worth N5.099 billion in 2,769 deals.

Access Holdings Plc, Neimeth International Pharmaceutical Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc (measured by volume) stood out as the top three stocks, which accounted for 502.843 million shares worth N4.388bn exchanged in 3,117 deals, contributing 34.21 per cent and 17.96 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

Equity investors gain 409bn on NGX in seven days