BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
Closing the week, the Lagos bourse recovered some prior session losses, bringing the benchmark index up by 0.19% to close at 46,631.46 points. Sustained rebounds in Tier-1 banking names, GTCO (+2.45%), ZENITHBANK (+0.88%), UBA (+1.29%) and ACCESSCORP (+1.03%) ensured the market’s strong performance. However, having gained in two (2) of five (5) trading sessions this week, the ASI closed 0.45% lower w/w, extending losses for the fourth consecutive week.
Over the course of the week, MTNN (-3.74% w/w) was the main driver of the week’s loss, following the share price being marked down ex-div. In addition, losses in WAPCO (-6.78% w/w), FBNH (-3.28% w/w) and NB (-0.62% w/w) contributed to the overall market decline. Consequently, the year-to-date (YTD) return dipped to 9.17%, while the market capitalization shed N113.97bn w/w to close at N25.14trn.
Analysis of today’s market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions declining by 25.34%. A total of 154.12m shares valued at N1.75bn were exchanged in 4,515 deals. FIDELITYBK (+0.85%), for the fourth consecutive session, led the volume chart with 20.22m units traded, while ZENITHBANK (+0.88%) led the value chart in deals worth N274.0m.
Market breadth closed positive at a 1.75-to-1 ratio with advancing issues outnumbering declining ones. ARDOVA (+9.87%) topped twenty-seven (27) others on the gainer’s log, while ROYALEX (-9.52%) led fifteen (15) others on the laggard’s table.
