Stocks This Week: Earnings optimism fail to lift shares

Nigerian stocks began the week vibrantly, with equities heaping up gains steadily Monday through Wednesday.

The prices were partly helped by investors’ and traders’ strategic positioning ahead of companies quarterly and half-year financial reports, widely seen as a barometer for determining whether share prices will head north or south upon release.

A modest drop of 0.08 per cent at the Thursday session gave the false hope that the week might return a positive yield with just a day to go. But the Friday’s slide was so tempestuous that that single-day gain obliterated all the accumulated gains, solely deciding the week’s fate.

That reversal was led by activities of bargain hunters, a class of traders who often watch stocks to appreciate for a while and then suddenly move in to sell and lock in gains, often disrupting the balance of share movement.

In the week ahead, investors with smart money, particularly asset managers and institutional investors, will be looking to step up the positioning game for half-year dividends and possibly bonus as earnings releases draw near.

All the key market performance indicators fell. Market breadth closed on a positive note as 44 gainers were reported against 22 losers.

The benchmark index and market capitalisation climbed by 1.47 and 1.49 per cent in that order.

Trade volume of 1.348 billion shares estimated at N12.140 billion was recorded in 21,581 deals, relative to the 1.021 billion shares worth N14.145 billion that were traded in 17,565 deals last week.

The financial services industry drove activity the most, with 892.212 million shares valued at N7.065 billion and traded in 11,592 deals. It added 66.20 per cent and 58.20 per cent to the total equity volume and value respectively.

The ICT sector came next, trading 110.067 million shares estimated at N776.402 million in 744 deals. The conglomerates sector was third, trading 100.008 million shares priced at N216.504 million in 788 deals.

All indices improved save for the NGX All-Share, NGX Lotus II, NGX Consumer Goods and NGX Main Board indices which declined 0.57 per cent, 0.23 per cent, 0.32 per cent and 2.22 per cent respectively. The NGX ASeM and NGX Growth Indices saw no movement.