The Nigerian stock market closed August on a mildly positive note, posting a 0.31% gain despite renewed bearish pressure later in the month.
Tracked by the All-Share Index, the market opened August at 139,863.5 points and closed at 140,295.5 points, recording a total gain of 432.0 points.
Momentum from July, its strongest month so far this year, was carried into the first half of August, pushing the index firmly into the green and driving it to highs above 146,000 points, up more than 5,000 points in just two weeks.
- But sentiment began to shift in the third week as oil and gas heavyweights and select mid-cap stocks lost ground.
- The downturn deepened in the fourth week, with the index sliding by over 3,500 points to 141,004.1, largely driven by weakness in big cement stocks and other large caps.
By the final trading week, which ended on August 29th, the index shed another 708 points, trimming much of the earlier rally.
Still, thanks to strong early gains, the market managed to eke out a modest 0.31% advance for the month.
A closer look at sector performance reveals a clearer story, shown through the movement of individual sector indices.
Insurance sector dazzles
The Nigerian insurance sector, tracked by the NGX Insurance Index, delivered an impressive 44% gain in August, starting at 890.9 points and closing at 1,283.6 points, with a trading volume of 11.6 billion shares.
At one point in the month, the sector was on track for a stunning 90% month-to-date gain, but a bearish swing that began on August 14th pared back much of that momentum.
Even so, the sector’s performance remained outstanding. AIICO Insurance surged by more than 90%, while GUINEA Insurance, Linkage Assurance, Veritas Kapital, Coronation Insurance, Prestige Assurance, Regency Alliance, and Universal Insurance all posted gains above 50%.
Another six insurance stocks gained between 10% and 40%, with Lasaco Assurance recording the smallest rise at 5.63%.
Remarkably, every single stock in the sector closed the month in the green, but due to the mid to small size of stocks in this sector, the impressive gain was overshadowed by losses in other sectors with heavyweights.
NGX Consumer Goods still bullish
In August, the NGX Consumer Goods Index advanced by 8.91%, lower than July’s double-digit rise of over 11%. It moved from 2,929.4 points to 3,190.5 points, with a market volume of 972 million shares.
Gains were driven largely by heavyweight BUA Foods, which soared more than 28%, and Champion Breweries, up over 24%. Guinness and Vitafoam added less than 12%, while McNichols recorded a modest 2.7% increase.
NGX Industrial Goods
The NGX Industrial Index closed August with a modest gain of 1.83%, making it the third best-performing sector.
The index opened at 4,885.2 points and started the month strongly, climbing to 5,681.4 in early August, up more than 16%. However, a decline that began on the 7th and persisted throughout the month erased much of these gains, leaving the index with only a slim profit by month-end.
Strong advances of over 20% in TrippleG, Beta Glass, and Austin Laz were not enough to lift the index significantly, as a 1.53% drop in Dangote Cement (accounting for more than 43% of the index) and a 12.8% slide in Lafarge weighed heavily on overall performance.
- On the flip side, NGX Banking and NGX Oil and Gas indices were the decliners for the month, losing 5.09% and 3.95% respectively, as select large-cap stocks in both sectors closed in the red.
