After recording four bullish trade sessions last week, investors in the Nigerian Exchange gained N464 billion.

The market opened on a positive note and sustained the sentiment till Thursday, with investors earning N501 billion in the process

However, the market suffered a decline on Friday on the back of sell-offs in some banking stocks.

The NGX All Share Index concluded the trading week with a 1.18 per cent week-on-week increase, as it crossed the 72,000 mark to close at 72,389.23 points.

This appreciation in the ASI was underpinned by robust rallies observed across key sectors, namely banking, consumer goods, telecoms, energy, and industrials.

The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.373 billion units of shares valued at N22.165bn traded in 17,300 deals; thus, contributing 72.96 per cent and 70.08 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The services industry followed with 97.008 million shares worth N616.265m in 1,949 deals, and the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 86.370 million shares worth N2.136bn in 3,819 deals.

An analysis of the sectoral performances showed that the banking, consumer goods, and industrial indexes were up by 7.01 per cent, 0.22 per cent, and 0.24 per cent, respectively.

The upward movements were attributed to an increased buying interest observed in stocks such as Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank, Sterling Financial Holding Company, AccessCorp, Ecobank and Tantalizer Plc.

On the other side, the insurance and oil & gas indexes dipped by 0.96 per cent and 0.27 per cent, respectively, driven by price decline in Eterna, NEM Insurance, Sunu Assurance Plc and Conoil Plc.

Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company Plc and Zenith Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 491.533 million shares worth N15.466bn in 5,997 deals, contributing 26.12 per cent and 48.90 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

Despite the market’s overall positive performance, trading activity during the week was lower at a total turnover of 1.882 billion units of shares worth N31.630bn in 33,020 deals traded in the past week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, compared to a total of 2.423 billion shares valued at N45.070bn that exchanged hands in 34,704 deals in the prior week.

The top-gaining stocks for the week included Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank Plc, which gained 59.32 per cent to close at N2.82 per unit; SCOA Nigeria Plc, which added 28.89 per cent to close at N1.74 and Daar Communications Plc was up by 27.78 per cent to close at N0.46.

Other top gainers were John Holt, which added 20.54 per cent to close at 2.23; DEAP Capital Management & Trust Plc gained 14.75 per cent to close at N0.70, and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc went up 10 per cent to close at N4.18 per unit.

Conversely, stocks such as Secure Electronic Technology Plc lost 16 per cent to close at N0.63; Eterna Plc shed 11.83 per cent to close at N11.55 and Thomas Wyatt lost 11.14 per cent to close at N2.95.

As the market opens on Monday, analysts were of the view that the market may react to the newly-released inflation figure of 28.20 per cent for November and investors may take positions ahead of the release of corporate earnings reports.

Punch