By Peter Egwuatu
The Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE has emerged as the best performing stock exchange in Africa after closing the month of January 2021 on the green territory.
Specifically, the All Share Index, ASI ended the week and month of January in green territory. The index kept a clean sheet all week, up +58 bases points, bps on Friday, and +3.44% week-on-week, w/w.
MTN +3.43% instrumental to Friday’s performance on sustained domestic demand, as the ticker recorded a new all-time high of N181.00. Equities ended the month +5.32% firmer. In USD terms (+7.10%), the NSE ranked 7th according to Bloomberg World Equities Index ranking.
Oil&Gas stocks finally halted the weeklong losing streak to finish higher, +0.63%. Ardova +8.57% and Oando +2.50% providing support.
All other sectors were also finished in green, save for Industrials, with a marginal decline of -8bps.
Turnover this week stayed impressive, with a daily average of $14.53mn. On Friday, investors traded a total of $17.18mn. Zenith retained the top spot on the activity chat with $3.20mn traded. Other notable volumes were MTN $2.47mn; GTB $1.84mn and Wapco $1.56mn. Trading was skewed mostly towards domestic investors.
Oil&Gas: +0.63%… despite today’s rebound, the sector emerged biggest losers week-on-week, giving up -7.25%. Nonetheless, today’s session witnessed rebound in Ardova N19.00 and Oando N3.28, both tickers adding +8.57% and +2.50%, respectively.
Bank: +0.52%…. a few setbacks during the week, but the sector emerged strongest week-on-week, up +3.33% amid earnings expectation. GTB rose +1.47% to close N34.50; ETI N6.50 bounced off intraday sell pressure to clinch a +1.56% rise. Stanbic pulled back, however, -3.43% to end at N45.00
Consumers: +0.32%…. The sector finished the week with modest gains, up +1.28%. Demand in Dangsugar was strong, pushing the ticker higher +1.92% to N21.25. Poor earnings results pulled Guinness lower -1.04% to N19.00 and Cadbury also missed by -1.12% to close at N8.80.
Vanguard News Nigeria