The stock market ended the week bearish on Friday, March 12, 2020, as 38 stocks depreciated in price, 89 stocks’ prices remained unchanged, and only 35 equities appreciated during the week.
Equity Market Performance
The NSE All-Share Index (ASI) which tracks the general market movement of all listed equities on the NSE, including those listed on the Alternative Securities Market (ASeM), depreciated by 1.74% at the end of the week, closing at 38,648.48 when compared to its closing unit of 39,331.61 in the prior week. This fall cumulated to a total year-to-date depreciation of 4.03% of the Index.
Besides the fall in the NSE ASI, other indices in the market followed a similar trend except for the following indices which saw some marginal increase, and the NSE Sovereign Bond Index which closed flat at the end of the week:
- The NSE-Main Board Index – +0.37% WoW
- NSE Insurance Index – +2.84% WoW
- NSE ASeM Index – +0.12 WoW
- NSE MERI Growth Index – +0.24 WoW
- NSE Consumer Goods Index – +2.18% WoW
- NSE Oil/Gas Index – +0.59% WoW
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During the week, the highest traded sectors by volume were the financial services industry, consumer goods industry, and the industrial goods industry. For the financial services industry, 1.2 billion shares (N10.27 billion) were traded, which represents 72% of the total traded volume on the NSE during the week. The Consumer goods industry followed as the largest traded sector with 110.56 million shares (N3.58 billion), representing about 6% of the total traded volume in the market. The Industrial goods industry was in third place, with a turnover volume of 99.76 million shares (N5.32 billion), also representing about 6% of the total traded volume in the market.
Some of the top gainers and losers in the market are shown below:
Exchange-Traded Products (ETPs) Market
The ETPs offered on the NSE are exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track the performance of an index or basket of assets. They are listed on the NSE and traded like stocks; some of them are Lotus Halal Equity ETF managed by Lotus Capital Limited, and Meristem Growth Exchange Traded fund managed by Meristem Wealth Management Limited.
During the week ended 12th March, 2021, a total of 217,600 units of ETFs were traded on the NSE. 117,365 of these units were MERVALUE, while 100,231 units and 4 units of VETGRIF30 and NEWGOLD were traded respectively. The total value of ETFs traded was N3.70 million; 54.97% of this was from MERVALUE, 44.16% was from VETGRIF30, while the remaining 0.87% was from NEWGOLD.
The remaining 9 ETFs of the 12 ETFs listed on the NSE were not traded during the week.
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Fixed Income Securities Market
As an alternative to equity investments, bonds are also traded on the NSE. Bonds are classified on the NSE as Corporate Bonds, Federal Government Bonds, State and Local Government Bonds, Supra-National Bonds, Sustainable Bonds, Securitized debt, FGN Savings Bonds, Diaspora Bonds, Eurobonds, and Sukuk, thereby offering investors varieties of fixed income securities.
A total of 9,192 units of bonds valued at N10.67 million were traded during the week ended 12th March, 2021, through 6 separate deals on the NSE. This represents an increase of 102% compared to the 4,550 units (N4.86 million) traded in the prior week through 8 deals.
Specifically, the fixed income securities traded during the week were FGSUK2025S2, FGS202369, FGS202267, and FGS202265.