The Nigerian equity market recorded its first weekly gain after losing N3.54tn in April.
It gained N812bn last week after ensuring six weeks of bearish trades, as investors looked for improved yields on alternative markets.
Many investors were not inspired by corporate announcements explaining their annual general meetings.
At the end of the bearish run, most of the banking stocks had taken a major hit with all the new entrants into the N1tn market capitalisation club dropping out as their market caps dipped.
At the end of last week’s trading, investors experienced a gain of N812bn as the bulls dominated three of the four trading sessions.
The benchmark index progressed by 1.46 per cent week-on-week to 99,587.25 points, driven by buying sentiments in some of the high tickers as well as blue-chip companies with strong fundamentals.
Corporations’ impressive Q1 financial performance and the beginning of the dividend earnings season have resulted in a 1.46 per cent increase in market capitalisation to N56.32tn over the past week.
Consequently, the year-to-date return of the market cap improved to 33.2 per cent.
A total turnover of 1.941 billion shares worth N32.64bn in 35,807 deals was traded last week, compared to 1.839 billion units of shares valued at N34.26bn that exchanged hands in 37,528 deals in the previous week.
Measured by volume, the financial services industry continued its dominance of trading activities, as it led with 1.496 billion shares valued at N22.45bn traded in 19,225 deals, contributing 77.08 per cent and 68.78 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
The consumer goods industry followed with 144.722 million shares worth N5.063bn in 4,966 deals.
The third place was the conglomerate industry, with a turnover of 109.978 million shares worth N1.539 bn in 2,064 deals.
Top traded equities included Abbey Mortgage Bank, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company and Access Holdings.
When measured by volume, they accounted for 898.940 million shares worth N14.314bn in 5,518 deals, contributing 46.31 per cent and 43.85 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.
On the sectoral front, performance was largely mixed as the Banking and Insurance indexes led the gainers by 9.42 per cent and 0.98 per cent week-on-week, driven by strong interest by investors in financial stocks, which resulted in positive price movements in FBN Holdings, Wema Bank, Sterling Financial Holding Company, Sovereign Insurance and Axa Mansard.
Trailing on the losers table were the oil & gas (0.68 per cent), industrial goods (0.36 per cent) and consumer goods indexes, which were dragged down by negative price movements in NASCON Allied Industries, Nigerian Breweries, Dangote Sugar, Seplat, Eterna and Berger, respectively.
At the close of the week, the best-performed stocks included FBNH (32.68 per cent), Sterling Financial Holding Company (27.75 per cent) and UAC Nigeria (24.60 per cent) as their share prices trended upward due to positive interest from investors. However, the worst-performing stocks for the week were NASCON (-17.03 per cent), University Press Plc (-16.67 per cent) and Neimeth Pharma Plc (-14.14 per cent).
Analysts expect the bullish sentiments into the new week, to be driven by the earning season.